Zmiany powierzchni leśnych będących w zarządzie Lasów Państwowych wynikające z rozwoju infrastruktury dróg publicznych

The economic development of the country is very much dependent on the development of the transport infrastructure, which is one of the main priorities of the state policy included in the planning and development documents. Ensuring a efficiently functioning transport system, primarily the network of roads, involves the need to improve the technical characteristics of existing roads or to build new sections. With the linear nature of road investments, we deal with interference in significant areas that have direct and indirect effects. The aim of the study was to analyze the impact of investments realized for different categories of public roads on the area of land needed to be excluded from forest production. The structure and area of the land as well as the number of forest superintendents transferred areas were also analyzed. The study was conducted for forest areas managed by the State Forests National Forest Holding (SF NFH). Data on the area of the transferred forest land was obtained from SF NFH units and the General Directorate of National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA). In the years 2012−2015, SF NFH units transferred the land into the management of GDDKiA 203 times with the total area of 617 ha. In the same period, the transfer of the land ownership to local government for voivodship, county and municipal roads took place in 388 cases and covered 556.6 ha. Since 2003 (i.e when special act on road investments came into force), the area of the transferred land amounted to 282.7 ha in Toruń, 78.6 ha in Gdańsk and 558.4 ha in Poznań regional directorates of the State Forests. There was a decrease in the area of the transferred lands depending on the category of public roads, while the highest number of events for municipal roads was observed. There is a great variability in the time, number and area of property transferred to public roads.