"Zugpferd Naturpark"

With horsepower to gentle forest management

To strengthen our forest areas in the long term, management in future will be carried out on only small areas, in a way that is gentle on the soil, with as little compaction of the subsoil as possible, and increasingly through single-tree logging.

As an alternative to the heavy forestry machines usually used, in autumn 2021 the Purkersdorf Nature Park used the powerful horses of Johannes Stippich with his two Norikers, Max and Nero, to salvage the wood in the often steep terrain and to process it in small quantities. 

The population was also involved in the project implementation at the beginning of October 2021.

On Friday, 8 October, almost 70 students from Purkersdorf schools took part in the timber work with horses. The children could not only marvel at and stroke the clever horses at close range, but also try out working with the horses.

On Saturday, 9 October, about 80 visitors (in small groups throughout the day) were able to follow the work of. At the end of the day, all prepared logs had been transported out of the forest, ready for collection at the entrance to the Naturpark center.

As a follow-up to the two project days, a documentation will be made by the nature park office, which will also show options for future further applications of this sustainable and traditional forest management.

The project was supported by the NÖ Landschaftsfonds.