Sylwester Grajewski
Forest regionalization for seeds and
seedlings in Poland
Abstract
The paper presents the principles of
seeds and seedlings regionalization introduced in Polish forest farms in 1994.
Moreover, the hazards have been discussed resulting from absence of such legal
regulations corresponding to seed and seedling material management utilized in
both urban and rural horticultural plantings, afforestations, in parks and
others. Temporal possibility of utilization of the Forest Regionalization of Seeds and Seedlings in Poland outside forest farms has been
indicated. It corresponds to the period till the moment proper legal
regulations are introduced. The regulations in focus should comprise all the
enterprises or firms trading seed and seedling, as well as tree and shrub
materials in
Key words
seed regionalization, afforestations, State Forests National Forest
Holding
Introduction
The capability of
forests and afforestations to perform various functions depends among other
elements on adaptation of species, or their varieties, to the
physico-geographical factors characteristic of the surface they occur on. The
full adaptation is observed in the case of tree native populations which have
been assimilated to both the climatic and habitat conditions for a few
generations (Fonder 1992). Importing species foreign to a given tree population
area, either as seeds or seedlings, will always be connected with a certain
risk of lack of adaptation. The risk will be observed either as a decrease in
susceptibility to unfavorable environmental conditions, worsening of the
quality or diminishing in the increase of circumference and height. Wide scale
introduction of trees foreign to a given region should always be preceded by a
long-period research.
Some tree and shrub
populations including the introduced ones are sometimes well adapted to their
new conditions. They may then supplant native species from their habitats
(Grajewski and Jankowski 2006). But more frequently they are first of all weaker
than native species as far as their health and susceptibility to stress factors
are concerned.
Standardization of seed and seedling material trade in Poland
Regionalization of
distribution of seeds and seedlings (Załęski et al. 1994, 1996) was
introduced in
Goals of forest regionalization
The regionalization for seeds and
seedlings on the area of
- Characterize
and keep the unique features of prevailing number of natural, native or supposedly native populations of the
most important forest-creating species,
- Increase
the seed base of the most precious trees populations in the regions of
their occurrence,
- Popularization
of the populations in the areas where the local tree-stand seed base is
insufficient,
- Limit
an uncontrolled spread of propagation material and strictly define the
principles and directions of its distribution,
- Create
a stable system of inventorying, as well as monitoring the propagation
origin material.
According to the OECD
regulations, a region of provenance of a given species, or subspecies or
variety is an area or a complex of areas with sufficiently homogenous ecological
conditions, where forest-stands have similar phenotype and genotype features. The
regulations impose that the marked borders of the regions respect the existing
administrative and geographical division of the country. The borders of the
regions should be clearly marked on maps, and the regions should be designated
either with numbers or letters.
The Polish seed
regionalization accepts ecological and genetic forest-creating species, as well
as climatic, geo-morphological and natural diversification of
-
distribution
of the most precious native provenances seed base of Pinus ssp., Alnus ssp.; Picea ssp., Abies ssp., Larix ssp., Quercus ssp., Fagus ssp.;
-
international
micro-division of
-
division
of
-
administrative
division of State Forests.
26 seed macro-regions–vast
areas with appropriately homogenous climatic and geo-morphological conditions-
were distinguished on the basis of the borders of the physico-geographical sub-provinces
and natural-forest regions. Macro-regions were denoted with two-element digital
symbols e.g. 314/3. The first element 314 is an international designation of a
sub-province, accepted in the physico-geographical regionalization. The other
element used in
106 seed micro-regions have been
grouped in macro-regions. They have been selected on the basis of their seed
base distribution, as well as on the base of the position of the natural-forest
districts or physico-geographical regions. Thus, two types of micro-regions
have been sectioned: mother/native
macro-regions (for provenances) and common
micro-regions (for the environment).
Mother/native micro-regions have been sectioned to preserve their natural identity, native or
supposedly native trees populations, occurring in the areas with fairly
balanced natural-forest conditions. The most precious provenances of Polish basic
tree forest-creating species characteristic of their quality and tree increment
are found on their area. The seed base is composed of large selected areas and commercial
seed stands of similar genotype and phenotype features.
Common micro-regions are the areas smaller than macro-regions with fairly homogenous
ecological-physiographic features, sectioned on the basis of natural-forest
district borders course. Their area is characterized by a very poor seed base,
without participation or with minute share of seed stands, which are not
related by genotype or phenotype complex features. Micro-regions differ from
each other only in respect of their natural tree growth conditions.
The most crucial
difference between the mentioned types of micro-regions consists in the fact that
foreign provenance tree species are not permitted for introduction into the
region. Whereas in common micro-regions, if their own seed base is
insufficient, both seeds and seedlings bred from seeds collected from different
macro-regions or in other selected seed micro-regions, are permitted.
54 mother/ native micro-regions
have been sectioned (for provenances) and 52 common ones (for the environment) have
been sectioned. Micro-regions have been designated with 3-digit figure symbols.
The first digit stands for the natural-forest region, and the following two are
the ordinal of the micro-region in a given region. Mother/native micro-regions
are denoted by ordinals from 1-50, and common ones 51-99. For instance: symbol
205 designates mother/ native region 5 in natural-forest region II, while
152-common region 2, natural-forest region I. Distinguishing the mother/native
micro-regions, in which especially precious species populations can be found,
aimed at creating optimum conditions for utilizing the precious seed base, as
well as preventing the flow of seeds from the outside bases of lower quality.
The regional borders
shown on maps are adjusted to the administrative division of the State Forests
and their course can be observed along the borders of forest inspectorates and
precincts owing to the fact that the seed regionalization is supposed to serve
first of all trading purposes (Fig.1).
The current regionalization
is not a stiff frame, which does not allow for certain modifications. The more
information is obtained concerning various species the more corrections or
modifications can be expected. Provenance research carried out in certain
natural conditions serves the purpose of recognition and confirmation of
usefulness of a given species for cultivation. This type of research has had a
long-going tradition and is carried out also in
Municipal greenery
Health and high
susceptibility to stress are the features which are particularly significant
for the plant species constituting park and interior city greenery. Conditions
present in city centers are usually unfavorable for the plant cover existing
there since there are various stress-promoting factors such as: air pollution
with gases, and dusts (of industrial and traffic origin), soil salinity,
mechanical damages etc.
Fig. 1. Division into seed regions
of the Regional Directorate of the State Forests in
The progressing
increase of the ecological and social significance of the city greeneries
observed in the form of new afforestations, development of commercial greenery,
plantings of both municipal and human settlements greeneries, as well as
building new private gardens, brings about a high demand for planting stock
indispensable for their construction and care. Increasing demand for seedlings
stimulates new nurseries establishment which produce higher and higher
quantities of the material. Increasing the production, as well as enlarging the
profits worked out by seedlings producing nurseries, may in some cases, result
in utilizing some amount of seeds of unknown origin.
Seedlings or
seeds coming from areas of significantly different climatic and soil conditions
or position a.s.l. are very frequently the reason of poor growth,
susceptibility to various pests, diseases or frosts, which results in death of
the planted trees and shrubs. The phenomenon corresponds both to native origin
species and species introduced in this way (Sabor 1998). The investigation
carried out among municipal greenery keepers proves that the people often pay
too little attention to the discussed problems. Keeping in mind the fact that
there are no legal regulations concerning the discussed problem it is suggested
that the principles defined in the „
Summary
Introduction in 1994 of
legal regulations concerning counteracting of uncontrolled distribution of
various tree and shrub populations in forest management has brought about a
certain order to the matter of seed and seedling supplies disposal in
References
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Author: Sylwester Grajewski PhD, The August
Cieszkowski Agricultural University of Poznań, Faculty of Forestry,
Department of Forest Engineering, Mazowiecka 41, 60-623 Poznań, Poland,
tel./fax: +4861 8487366, e-mail: sylgraj@au.poznan.pl , http://www.au.poznan.pl/kil .