Wolf, otter and beaver: 300,000 euros damage
Environment&Climate
The state of Salzburg has to pay a good 330,000 euros in damages per year to farmers, fishermen and forest owners for damage caused by wolves, otters and beavers. Because the heavily protected species are multiplying quite rapidly, clear decisions will therefore be needed in the future on how to deal with them, says Agrarian Councilor Josef Schwaiger (ÖVP).
At around 15,000 euros a year, beavers currently cause the least damage in Salzburg, says Schwaiger. “That’s relatively little in relation to the otters, there it’s about 120,000 euros and in total we spend about 330,000 euros a year on this art of protected animals in this country,” says Schwaiger.
The damages payments are currently a constant amount. “About half is accounted for by wolves and a little less than half by beavers and otters. That’s significant, big damage. But that is a topic that will continue to accompany us in the future,” says Schwaiger. It was not until the beginning of December that beavers felled a number of trees in the Gumping district of Lofer.
Provincial Council: Species protection as a social issue
Even if these amounts of damage hardly change each year, the next state government will have to deal with it: “If society wants these animal species to be spared all year round, & we continue to expect that we will pay a thousand euros a day from the state treasury damage. This is a social question that politics cannot answer directly,” adds Schwaiger.
Killing a precisely defined part of beavers and wolves in the future – as has already been done successfully with otters – would be one possibility, says Provincial Councilor Schwaiger.