Regionalne zróżnicowanie potrzeb i pilności przebudowy drzewostanów

Nowadays in forestry, we observe an increase in threats that rise the uncertainty and risk of the forest management. This is caused, inter alia, by increasing intensity of forest and environmental damage as well as by the conflict of expectations for the use of forest resources. As a result, there is a problem of achieving the goals of sustainable development and adaptation of the forest ecosystems to new challenges. The aim of the presented study was to assess the regional variety of the need and the urgency of stands conversion. The feature was determined for all stands of the State Forests older than 20 years. Three assessment criteria were selected: (A) silvicultural target (compatibility of the species composition with the planned one), (B) stands stability (resultant from 5 auxiliary sub−indices), and (C) stock level (including 2 auxiliary sub−indices). The majority of stands has consistent species composition (over 60% in total), however only a small fraction of stands was found with a species composition incompatible with the planned one (average 6.34%). Stands with medium stability accounted for about 70%, while those with poor growing stock status make up about 70% of stands under analysis. The regional diversification of the needs for stands reconstruction seems to be strongly correlated with the incompatibility of stand’s species composition with habitat conditions. The largest fraction of stands requiring conversion was observed in Wrocław, Kraków and Katowice regional directorates of the State Forests. This situation may change in the future due to dynamic changes resulting from modifications of the climate and the deterioration of health condition of dominant Scots pine stands in central and north parts of Poland. Private forests were not taken into consideration in this research. It may impact the overall picture in regions of the high share of private forest ownership.