Zagrożenie lasu przez wiatr na przykładzie nadleśnictw Puszczy Białowieskiej

Stand damage risk model was applied to three forest districts located in the Białowieża Primeval Forest: Browsk, Hajnówka and Białowieża. For this purpose, information contained in the database of the State Forests Information System was used. The obtained values of the stand damage risk factor allowed assigning each stand to one of the six risk classes. Higher class indicates higher damage risk to stands. The share of the stand area was calculated for each class. The weighted average of the areal shares of stands in the two highest damage risk factor classes was used as a measure of wind damage risk to forests. The values of this measure for individual forest districts were as follows: Browsk – 27.3%, Hajnówka – 33.0%, Białowieża – 38.3%. The degree of risk to these forests ranges from average to high, which is mainly because of large proportion of the high, old−growth spruce stands. Forest stands of the Białowieża Primeval Forest with a high risk factor are threatened by damage in the event of strong winds in this area.