Natural forest reserve in Laterns. Inventory and expert opinion for Vorarlberg municipality

Associated persons Hanns Kirchmeir, Niklas Kirchmeir, Maxim Grigull
Clients Federal state government of Vorarlberg, Department of Environmental and Climate Protection
Regions Austria
Year 2019

To review the suitability of a forest as a natural forest reserve in the municipality of Laterns, Vorarlberg, E.C.O. was commissioned to do an independent report. As the potential natural forest reserve is situated in steep terrain, forestry use is limited. Therefore, the municipality of Laterns wants to identify the forest (around 18 ha) as a natural forest reserve. E.C.O. collected the following data at 7 survey points:

Tree composition, ground vegetation, rejuvenation, rejuvenated area, usage, stage of development, age structure, dead wood, stock structure, diversity of tree layer and diversity of shrub layer.

These values give insight on the hemerobic state (naturalness) of the survey area. A UAV was used to capture high-quality images, to create orthophotos and an inventory map.