Jacek Wolski

Abstract

The Western Bieszczady mountains are an example of a region of Poland whose population suffered extremely heavily from the effects of wartime and post-war migrations linked to political repression. In 1944-1947 andlater in 1951, from more than 100 villages in the region that had existed since the 15th and 16th centuries, approximately 90% of the total number of inhabitants were forcibly relocated – chiefly ethnic Ruthenians(Boykos). The scale in time and space, and the consequences for the landscape, of the natural and socioeconomic processes taking place there over the next 70 years have proved remarkable on even a European scale. The diversity of the former human activity, followed by a combination of abiotic and biotic renaturalisation processes and secondary human pressure, has led to the creation of unique spatial units. The main aim of this article is to address problems relating to the definition and classification of the contemporary landscape of theareas permanently abandoned by human populations in the Western Bieszczady, through the lens of selected conceptual perspectives of other researchers. Deliberations also covered the memory of the subject landscape in the material and information layers (structural and functional continuum, sustainability of spatial units, time in the sense of the historical evolution of landscapes).

Keywords: abandoned rural areas, definition and classification of the landscapes, memory of the landscape, Western Bieszczady mountains, Boykos

Jacek Wolski [j.wolski@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Leszek Starkel [starkel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Jacek Wolski [j.wolski@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

Presented here are the means of generating and possibilities for applying a digital map of sequences of ‘forest/non‑forest’ states in a study area, as based on topographic maps for seven instances in time (between 1800 and the present day). There is also a brief description of cartographic material used, as well as the methods applied in generating a variability model. The study area was then analysed from the point of view of differences in the aforementioned sequences of ‘forest/non‑forest’ states, this revealing marked contrasts between two Polish regions that are adjacent, but were conditioned differently in the past, in political and social terms. The study ends by considering the relationship between the distinguished sequences and habitat type, as referred to in terms of potential natural vegetation.

Keywords: historical maps, changes in forest cover, potential natural vegetation, habitat variation, central Poland

Jan Marek Matuszkiewicz [jan.mat@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Jacek Wolski [j.wolski@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Anna Kowalska [aniak@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

This paper consists of three complementary sections, preceded by a short review of various Polish publications. The discussedsections cover: I. Method of measuring down dead wood (DDW) in a forest, II. An estimation of DDW resources instands which are managed and of uneven-age, III. Suggestions for DDW management in managed forests – a look at theresults of the suggestions made 10 years ago. The first section is a review of the main assumptions of the American approachto measuring DDW. The second section presents an evaluation of DDW resources in the three Forest PromotionalComplexes of Puszcza Białowieska, Bory Lubuskie, Bory Tucholskie. An analysis of the correlations is included. The thirdand final part offers a critical look at the implementation of the recommendations made 10 years ago by the authors ofthe project. These were recommendations for, what were at that time, new principles of handling DDW in Polish forests.

Keywords: down dead wood, method of measurements, Forest Promotional Complexes, forest management, dead wood volume

Jacek Wolski [j.wolski@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland