The State Forests (LP) announced changes in the management method in a short announcement published last week. It states that the LP director general “has established guidelines for limiting the use of felling and clear-cutting in forests managed by the State Forests.”
This is to implement the decision of the Minister of Climate, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, from April this year, in which she ordered the Forests Directorate to prepare an “analysis and proposals for solutions” in order to limit the use of clear-cutting.
This term refers to a controversial practice of cutting down all the trees in a given area at once (as opposed to cutting them down gradually or leaving some trees to age naturally). This type of forest management can be problematic from the point of view of nature conservationand also social reception. Because a place where someone went for walks or mushroom picking for years is suddenly stripped of trees.
Defrostation Photo: Jakub Orzechowski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
The State Forests inform that – seeing these doubts – from now on they will recommend that foresters use other solutions, under certain conditions.
Moving away from clear-cutting is not happening everywhere
The Forest Directorate informs that the new guidelines have been developed by a team of experts from several universities and forestry research centers. They are to allow foresters to more often use methods of obtaining wood other than clear-cutting.
This does not mean a complete abandonment of this method of cutting, and replacing clear-cuts is to take place in “favourable conditions” and after “careful analysis”.
The State Forests also argue that this method of management has its advantages: “easy regeneration” of some trees, ease of obtaining wood, and providing ecological niches for species that prefer open, sunny spaces.
They also speak of fears of the “negative effects” of abandoning clear-cutting. This includes the potential exposure of the trees left to damage (by pests or storms). Some naturalists completely disagree with this, because they believe that it is the current method of forest management, including clear-cutting, that increases such a threat. For example, when it creates areas consisting of only one species, pine, of the same age, which are highly exposed to changing climatic conditions (drought can weaken these trees, and then they will become susceptible to bark beetles). A forest that is more diverse in terms of age and species is more resistant, naturalists argue.
There will be no complete cessation of clear-cutting, among other things, because – as we read in the order of the director of the State Forests – “a radical departure” from them “would significantly delay the process of generational replacement and forest rejuvenation”. Foresters believe that this will increase the risk of forest dieback.
What is to change in practice thanks to the new guidelines? As part of the current forest management plans (these are documents adopted for 10 years, constituting the basis of management in a given forest district), foresters are to “maximally use” the guidelines, which allow them to replace complete felling with another method of logging. However, this can only happen after “a thorough analysis”.
When creating new plans, the management “recommends” modifications and reductions in clear-cutting in selected forests: among others, those with “higher social function”, health resorts, water and soil protection, adjacent to roads and along watercourses. And also “in all stands”, where “desirable breeding effects can be achieved” without clear-cutting. What will this mean in practice and by how much will the area of clear-cutting decrease? The answer to this question – or rather the lack thereof – is a source of doubt among naturalists.
“Propaganda character” of the ordinance?
Even before the director of the State Forests issued the order, his project was submitted to the State Council for Nature Protection (an expert advisory body operating under the Minister of the Environment). On July 15, the Council issued its opinion, which is strongly critical of the foresters' proposal. In its summary, the Commission for the Protection of Ecosystems writes:
“It seems that the presented 'Proposals for solutions aimed at limiting the use of felling and clear-cutting' are mostly a repetition of declarations already in force in Polish forestry, and presenting them as a program of changes is mainly of a propaganda nature.”
Why such a harsh assessment? Experts first describe the negative effects of this type of management on nature. Cutting down an entire area of a forest basically destroys it as a habitat. In such a forest, there is no room for old trees, which are very important for many species, from insects to birds. The whole process also affects forest soils, can disturb the water balance, intensify erosion and drying, and cause carbon dioxide emissions. It opens the forest to invasive species. A forest planted on such clearcuts is uniform in age, which does not resemble natural processes.
Limiting such felling and using other practices can help to limit some of these effects. However, the Council assesses that the guidelines of the State Forests Directorate may not lead to this at all. It writes, among other things, that most of the recommendations of the Forests Directorate describe activities and approaches that have “long” been part of the canon of forestry art or are at least recommended, so they do not actually introduce anything new.
According to PROP, only one point from the entire list of recommendations “proposes any real change that goes beyond improving the practices already declared and applied”. This concerns changing the management “by roads, natural reservoirs and watercourses, in places intensively used for recreation”. The Council noted that the document does not indicate the current area of clear-cuts (although it was indicated that this method applies to “most renewable forest areas”), or how much it will be reduced as a result of the new guidelines.
Radosław Ślusarczyk, a member of the Council and head of the organization Pracownia na rzecz Wszystkich Istot, has many concerns about how the new guidelines will work in practice. First of all, as he says, they are very general and now much will depend on how and when they are translated into reality. In the worst case, he fears that the effect will indeed be only “propaganda”.
– It's a good direction to reduce clear-cutting. But there are no details. If we saw in the regulation that, for example, clear-cutting would be reduced by – let's say – 20 percent or 50 or 70 percent, we would be calm because we would know what the impact is on reality. And now we don't know what it will be like – he says.
“Far-reaching changes in the approach to forest management”
We asked the State Forests management, among other things, about the estimates of the effects of the order. However, as the press office informed us, these will only appear in the future. The State Forests management is currently analyzing the impact of the changes on individual forest districts and their forest management plans. And “the scale of the changes will be possible to present at the end of this year, when the projects are completed.”
However, the forests distance themselves from the accusations that the new rules for foresters are just “propaganda”. They emphasize that they take into account the European Commission's guidelines on forestry closer to nature. As we read in the response:
“The regulation indicates far-reaching changes in the approach to forest management and individual analysis of stands designated for felling. (…) We treat social expectations as a priority and in practice in each of the forest districts for which draft forest management plans are developed, forests of social importance are designated. We put the provisions of the Nature Conservation Act first, and then the stability of the forest.”
The Forest Directorate informs that the first studies in this area will appear at the turn of the year (together with new drafts of forest management plans). In addition, in the autumn, “training for LP employees in the scope of introducing changes” will also start. However, at the moment it will be difficult for citizens to check whether and when the forest in the area will be cut down and whether clear-cutting will be used there. Although the forests have this data, the publicly available Forest Data Bank is quite complicated and it is difficult to extract such information from it without knowledge of the scope of the Forests' activities and the service itself.
A few years ago, people took matters into their own hands and the grassroots initiative Forests and Citizens created such an interactive mapwhere you can check forest management plans and information about planned works – as in the example below:
A grassroots map that allows you to check where and how a given part of the forest will be cut down photo: lasyiobywatele.pl
Will the State Forests themselves start making such information available in a more accessible way? “We are developing an action plan in this area,” the press office informs.