Although soils are the key component for sustainable development, soil degradation in EU member states continues to increase. Forest soils are not excluded and are particularly vulnerable to degradation processes, the more so after natural disasters and intensive use of modern technologies. Compaction is the most common consequence of such uses. The present study analyses the existing national and international policy documents that refer to soil protection using content analysis. Particular emphasis is given to soil compaction and limitations of using modern technologies. The results indicate that the EU Thematic Strategy for soil protection set ambitious objectives related to soil degradation prevention and soil function conservation. Since the Directive setting out a framework for soil protection and amending Council Directive 2004/35/EC, as proposed in the Strategy, was not adopted, the various aspects of soil protection in EU member states are fragmented among numerous policies. However, the EU environmental policy has the most important role. Although soil compaction is identified as one of the main threats, it is not sufficiently addressed and considered in EU policy documents. Current forestry legislation only indirectly considers forest soil protection in terms of minimizing the negative effects of forestry operations. Due to the increasing use of modern technologies, a more active approach to (forest) soil protection will be necessary in the future. Likewise,...
COBISS.SI-ID: 5157030
The first part of this article presents the main kinds of forest soil damage: soil compaction, soil displacement, and emergence of rut. In the second part of the article, we describe the factors of forest soil sensitivity to damage, which we split into basic soil factors (soil texture, soil organic matter, air in the soil, soil water) and secondary soil factors and variables (soil structure, soil porosity, soil density, air and water permeability of soil). Some factors of increasing the forest soil resistance to damage are listed. Planning of work is an important phase of machine felling. Due to the heterogeneity of forest soil it is impossible to accurately spatially determine more or less appropriate working sites. We propose still acceptable stand damage as an additional criterion % allowed rut depth seems to be an appropriate index.
COBISS.SI-ID: 5106086
Protection and conservation of forest soil is an important criterion for sustainable forest management. Forest soil with high production capacity enables numerous effects and ensures undisturbed functioning of forest ecosystem. Since human activities during forest operations can significantly affect production capacity of the soil, reduction of these impacts becomes the main challenge. Despite the fact that forestry practice in the world sets criteria and indicators of soil protection on the basis of the existing knowledge, in Slovenia exist no clearly defined acceptable extent of forest soil damage at the moment. Therefore, in our research we investigated criteria and indicators used to evaluate acceptable forest soil damage in practice. Fifty three forestry professionals from several organizations participated in the survey we performed in October 2018 on Pokljuka. In this survey, we asked the professionals about criteria they applied when evaluating soil damage on two sampling plots. Furthermore, we inquired about measures for preventing the damage and about entities entitled to stop temporarily the activities in case of an unacceptable state. Results of the research show disunity in determining the acceptable damage on selected plots. The respondents mostly assessed it with regard to visible damage and determined the acceptable soil damage intuitively. Only few of them clearly wrote (appropriate) criteria for assessing acceptable soil damage. Among the criteria, the rut...
COBISS.SI-ID: 5312678
In the Alps, forests are generally multi-functional, and they are classed according to their primary role as production, protection or recreation forests. The dominance of one of these roles does not exclude all the others, although it shapes management, which must reflect the primary role of each forest. That is also the case of protection forests, which must be managed for their secondary production and recreation roles as well. What is more, management is a vital requirement because it supports forest health, and therefore periodic harvesting remains a necessity. However, the physical conditions that characterize a protection forest (e.g. extremely steep terrain, sensitive soil, remote location etc.) and the prescriptions of a specifically designed silviculture tend to constrain harvesting and make it especially difficult. Special harvesting equipment and novel approaches to harvesting are required in order to achieve environmental, social and financial sustainability. This study reports about cable yarding in a protection forest, under conditions that are representative of the challenges encountered when negotiating this forest type. The productivity of the yarding operation was 6.1 m3 ub SMH-1 for the yarding distance of 135 m, an average load of 0.88 m3 and a lateral distance of 20 m. Of the remaining trees, 27.1% were damaged during forest operations due to felling, log contact or falling rocks. Falling rocks have a great influence on log quality and value....
COBISS.SI-ID: 5120166
In the work we are discussing the Slovenian stand damages in detail. We have determined the stand damages after CTL harvesting in interval of 13,1 to 36,4%. A higher damage rate has been determined in beech thinnings 16,4% than in early spruce thinnings 13,1%. When combined CTL harvesting was used 23,9% of damages was determined. The incidence of old damages varied between 78,5 and 34,5% in older stands, with less damages in young stands. The largest damage incidence was determined on the bole, followed by the stump and roots. No bole damages were determined where pure CTL technology was employed. It has been established, that the least stand damages are present the furthest from the skid trail, while predominantly more damages are present in the stand than at the skid trail. The damage size iz sporadically distributed with high variance. In general it can be claimed, that larger damages are present on trees of larger sizes, however it wasn't significant. Predominantly there are more small damages and less bigger ones.
COBISS.SI-ID: 293157376