More than 3.5 million m³ of stormwood

Article by Philipp Matzku (adapted for holzkurier.com; translated by Microsoft/Gerd Ebner) | 03.10.2023 - 10:09

As of August 30th, the Croatian State Forests, Hrvatske šume, corrected the amount of damaged wood from the storm of July 19th to just under 3.6 million cubic metres, of which 2 million cubic metres were oak and 500,000 cubic metres beech alone.

2. Oktober

According to another estimate at the end of August, the Croatian State Forests, Hrvatske šume, assumed a storm timber quantity of 3,567,538 fm. About five weeks after the initial forecast of 1.2 million cubic meters, this is about 2.4 million cubic meters more damaged wood. Of this, pedunculate oak alone accounted for 1.89 million cubic meters. The sessile oak plays only a subordinate role with just under 70,000 fm. As of August 30th, beech accounted for 510,000 cubic meters and fir 35,500 cubic meters of damaged wood.

The main damaged area continues to be the Vinkovci forest district with a total of 2.7 million cubic meters. Around 65% or 1.75 million cubic metres were accounted for by oak and 945,000 cubic metres by other types of wood. According to the August forecast, the forest district of Nova Gradiška comes to 320,000 fm, Zagreb to 200,000 fm, Požega to 140,900 fm and Bjelovar to 129,500 fm.

A further estimate at the end of September is not yet available. The Holzkurier also has no further estimates of the amount of damage at present. At the end of July, the Croatian State Forests assumed a damage sum of €100 million.

26. Juli

The main damage area of the storm was between the two rivers Sava and Drava east of the capital Zagreb. The hardest hit was the Vinkovci district on the Serbian border with a damaged wood volume of 850,000 fm. On the other hand, the Otok forest district, known for its oaks, accounted for around 400,000 cubic metres alone.

The forest district of Nova Gradiška in south-central Croatia in the Sava Valley reported 205,000 cubic metres of damaged wood in its oak and beech forests.

In the forest districts of Zagreb, Požega and Bjelovar, the Croatian state forests expect around 160,000 cubic meters of damaged wood. In addition to oak and beech, other hardwoods, such as hornbeam, ash, but also spruce, are also affected in these cases.

It is currently impossible to estimate the extent to which the amount of damaged wood will have an impact on oak, which is important for Europe's parquet and furniture industry.