EFFECTS OF FOREST MANAGEMENT ON STAND STRUCTURE AND THE QUANTITY OF FALLEN DEAD WOOD - SOME BRITISH AND POLISH EXAMPLES

Examples of the effects of forest management for timber are illustrated through records of the stand structure, ground flora composition and amount of fallen dead wood in the Bialowieza Forest, Poland, and three English woods. Line intersect sampling, a technique not widely used in Britain, was adopted to assess the amount of fallen dead wood, and its potential in future nature conservation surveys is considered. Managed stands in the Bialowieza Forest had fewer large trees and much less dead wood than undisturbed stands. Worked coppice in English woods had the expected high number of small stems and low amounts of dead wood, particularly as large-diameter logs. In high forest, largely neglected for 100 years and promoted from coppice, there were more (and larger) fallen branches and trunks. However, the estimated volume of fallen dead wood was only about a third of that in the undisturbed areas of Bialowieza Forest.