LEADER+ Project

The following is a translation of his presentation:

Dear Colleagues:  Welcome to the land of the Silver Fir tree!

I would like to give you a report about the trans-national LEADER+ Project „Silver Fir“. The project is an example of incorporating a regional resource into the culture of the region with the goal of preserving the cultural landscape and increasing employment.

I am convinced that there are hidden assets in your regions as well. Probably not the Silver Fir tree, but something else.  I hope I‘ll be able to motivate you to look for them with this project. My colleagues, Mrs. Grzesik from the North Black Forest and  Mr. Rolf Eberhardt from the West Allgeau are also here and will be telling you about the activities in the North Black Forest and the West Allgeau at the end of my presentation.

And now to the reason for the project:

Vorarlberg is an area where a particular species of tree has a very high population.  I‘m talking about the Silver Fir. In our mixed forests, we have mostly Spruce trees, but in second place we have the Silver Fir tree, or Fir as it is often called.

The Silver Fir is a very rare tree in Europe and if it is not farmed, it is in danger of becoming extinct.  This is one of the reasons that the Silver Fir was voted the „Tree of the Year“ in 2004.

If we look at the whole of Europe, we see that the Fir makes up only 0.2% of the forests.  In Austria it makes up 3 - 4% of the woodlands.  But in the northern accumulation areas, the Silver Fir makes up to 50 - 80% of the forests.

It‘s hard to believe, but it‘s true:  Demand for Silver Fir has been decreasing steadily over the past few decades.  The fabricators have forgotten more and more about how to work with this regional timber and ever increasing amounts of Spruce and Larch have been imported from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Canada.

And this is how it happens that despite increasing wood processing, our landscape is quickly turning into woodlands.  At the moment, the growth of wood in our forests is 30% higher than utilization.

The situation is similar in the surrounding areas like North Tyrol, parts of Switzerland, West Allgeau as well as the North Black Forest.  This is why we decided to tackle the problem together.

The LEADER networks in Germany and Austria helped us in developing the project.  They organised a co-operation exchange in Friedrichshafen and brought us closer together.

So:  What are the causes of this situation?

Why is utilization of regional wood decreasing while at the same time wood processing is increasing?
Is it a question of quality or is it really the achievable price?
If we try to answer these questions we come to the following conclusions:

1.The Silver Fir produces wood with excellent qualities.

2.The Silver Fir is a family tree.  The sapling grows in the shade of the mother tree and keeps growing until the mother tree dies or is felled.  For a healthy forest in our region, the individual tree must be farmed and continuously cared for.  This means that the mother tree is felled so that the saplings can cross over into the next phase of growth.  This is called a “plenter“ forest.  These are forests that don‘t allow for cultivation.  In past generations, forestry was carried out with the aid of horses.  Increasing technology and decreasing transportation costs put the regional forest industry under pricing pressure.

3.One of the reasons that the Silver Fir is called the Queen of the Trees is because of its impressive size.  Handling, and the first step in processing the Silver Fir‘s thick trunk is a little more difficult than the bred Fir with its comparatively  thinner and lighter trunk.

4.The wood of the Silver Fir requires preliminary air drying and cannot be dryed out as quickly as the Spruce in the drying chamber.

As you can see, there are good reasons why there isn‘t as much demand for the wood of the Silver Fir from the point of view of processing.  To add to this, there is the decrease of forest utilization, the loss of skills in processing, and the lack of demand for technical equipment for processing certain types of wood - by this I mean saw mills, drying chambers, cutting tools, joining techniques, and so on.

Skills are being lost.  Even in the schools, architects are hardly learning anything about the different types of wood.  This explains why only a few planners know the difference between the different woods.  The texts inviting people to make tenders, talk about Spruce - they are copied - and then a certain type of wood is forgotten.

This trend is accelerated by the decreasing costs for transportation and increasing globalisation.  It is becoming easier and cheaper for the processor to buy timber from far away countries and to have it delivered just in time.

As you see, the interaction of many different circumstances make it possible for a regional value added chain of importance to be lost, and can begin to threaten the destruction of a cultural forest that was looked after by people for generations.

Well, that‘s enough of these horror stories!  Let‘s take a look at what our chances are. A rare type of wood with high quality characteristics right at the door and plenty of it!  That should be considered a gift.  Or shouldn‘t it?

This kind of situation should make a marketing expert‘s heart beat faster. It was clear to us that it was about time to start cultivating this special regional wood again.  By cultivate, I mean to remind the population and the planners about it. At this point I would like to mention that up until now, the consumer hasn‘t even been asked.  The miserable situation has been brought about by the processors who are waging a price war instead of doing marketing work and diversifying. So, what have we done in our project to incorporate a regional resource into our culture?  And what have we achieved?

The first thing that the regions that are participating in the project did was to decide on the activities and work out a common strategy and marketing plan.  The consolidated brochure is a result you can see.

The brochure is on your tables.  If you glance through it quickly you can see that there is information about the Silver Fir, but above all, it shows good examples of use. The brochure is intended to intensify demand as well as to sensitise people to the cultural value of the Silver Fir.

We, in Vorarlberg have designed furniture for the Silver Fir Project, and through this want to deliver the message:  „This wood is very rare and it would be a pity to use it up in masses.“  This message is meant to call attention to the value of the wood.

We have supported product developments through interplant workshops, communicated design suggestions and appealed to public property developers to use more wood from the regional forests in order to maintain our own cultural forests or protection forests.

We created „Fir Tree Country“ and offer builders an organised tour of good examples. What happened?

We have found an increasing number of partner architects who have used this type of wood as a central design.  We have found more and more communities that have mentioned this type of wood in their invitations to bid on their public buildings.  This has made it possible for a number of buildings to be constructed, which we will take a look at following the presentation.  You will see for yourself, the excellent quality of the wood.

During the past three years it has become a standard practice that regional wood, especially the Silver Fir, is demanded by the planners and appears in the invitation for tender. We have only just been able to start to register the consequences of increasing prices and the regional felling of trees.

We assume that we will be able to increase felling of the Silver Fir by 25 - 30% over the next few years.  In this way we should be able to create about 100 more jobs in the processing chain. Increased processing of the Silver Fir will also mean that investments will have to be made in the processing plants.

The Silver Fir project is comprised of presentation and public relations work alone.  To finance this we have used €40,000 of public funding from the EU, and the federal and state governments, as well as a further €20,000 from private funding.

This initiative would not have been possible if it hadn‘t been for the LEADER+ Programme. To find out what our neighbour regions have done, I will now give the floor to Mrs. Dajana Grzesik and Mr. Rolf Eberhardt.

Presentation Grzesik
Presentation Eberhardt