Natural afforestation of the fallows in the Western Polissya

Abstract

One of the main tasks of forestry in Ukraine is to increase forest cover – it can be partially solved by the development of low-productive agricultural land, in particular, fallows, on which self-sown forest is already growing or just appearing, since the expanded reproduction of forests is relevant for Ukraine, considering ecological and forestry transformations of fallows conditioned by their natural afforestation. The main goal was to evaluate the success of natural renewal on fallows in the region under study, to identify factors influencing the course of natural afforestation and tree conservation depending on the location of the plot relative to the forest border and the distance to it. General scientific, forestry and taxation, reconnaissance, forestry and ecological, and geobotanics methods were used to investigate natural renewal at fallows. Office study of materials was carried out using mathematical statistics. As a result of a detailed investigation of the natural settlement of forest tree species on abandoned fields of Western Polissya, it was found that in coniferous and subor conditions, the plots are mostly wooded with pine, as well as birch and alder. In most of the test plots, the renewal was satisfactory (according to the Nesterov scale). The number of self-seeding of tree species in the test plots was not uniform and ranged from 1.2-13.1 thous. units/ha depending on forest site types, species composition, undergrowth size, the abundance of living ground cover, and the degree of sodding of the site and clogging with weeds and grass, which ranged from 20 to 90%. The occurrence of natural renewal is also not uniform: from 19 to 100%. The spread of tree species occurred mainly from forest stands located to the west, northwest, and north of the fallows. The findings of the study are extremely important for employees of the forest industry, and can also be used by territorial communities in improving land management, establishing landscape parks, etc.