engleski

The Use of New Technologies in Opening Up of Forest

Forests and forest lands cover about 35% of the surface of Croatia. About 78% of the total forest and forest land area in Croatia are under the management of the Public Company “Hrvatske šume” (Croatian Forests), Zagreb, through its 16 Forester’s Offices all over the country. It is a heterogeneous area with regard to the soil, its composition, climate, ecological, social, economical and other conditions. In general, this region can be divided into Pannonic area with even-aged forets, Dinaric area with uneven-aged forests, and Mediterranean and Sub-Mediterranean area where we can find both even- aged, and uneven-aged forests. Similarly to this diversity of conditions, the forest experts and designers are facing different requirements when opening up these forest regions to the forest roads; especially in the Dinaric area of Gorski kotar, Velebit, Velika Kapela, Mala Kapela, Plješivica, Central Lika mountains, and single mountain ranges in other parts of Croatia. This Paper presents actual state of openness of the whole country giving emphasis to the mountainous region, along with information about the openness that should be reached in the future. It also describes and suggests the introduction of the notion of relative instead of traditional openness when evaluating the openness of a certain region. This Paper also provides basic assumptions to be considered in primary and secondary opening up of mountainous forets so that future forest roads could provide more benefits in the planned, intensive management of the forest eco-system with minimum negative effects to its existence and stability. It also gives a description of environmentally and economically acceptable methods of the forest roads construction on steep terrains. A way of evaluating the decisive factors in selecting the best location for a future forest road is also suggested by this Paper.

forest openness; forest roads; relative openness; mountainous region

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