Approaches to Improving the State of the Shelterbelts in the Northern Caucasus

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In the flat regions of the North Caucasus, the cultivation of field crops is associated with the risk of causing destructive dust storms. A tried means of preventing them was the system of shelterbelts (SBs), created in the 50–70s of the past century. However, for a number of reasons and with age, they degraded into an unsatisfactory state. A need has arisen to carry out a complex of forestry activities aimed at improving and increasing the plantations functional durability. The purpose of the research was to determine the most rational ways and methods of these activities. The studies were carried out by employing the method of a comprehensive analysis of the SBs inventory materials obtained in 2007–2019 on a total area of more than 20 thousand ha–1 using the current methodological standards as well as original approaches, with the participation and under the guidance of the article’s author. It has been established that on the chernozems, the SBs have been preserved almost across the entire original area, they possess a higher degree of biocenotic diversity and require individual economic activity regimes. The most common are the plantations possessing the windproof structures with sparse parent stands, dense layers of understorey and underbrush, as well as sparse single-storey stands with a highly developed ground cover and weakened tree vegetation. In the first type of plantations it’s prudent to carry out reconstructive fellings, aimed at the formation of a young seed or seedling-seed generation of the trees and increasing its wind permeability. The second one calls for sanitary fellings and agrotechnical maintenance, focused on stand’s renewal and thickening of the windbreak profile of these shelterbelts. On chestnut soil types, plantations of the 50–60s have disintegrated completely, while the plantations of the 70s have survived only in areas with increased moisture. They are in a severely weakened state and under a direct threat of dying. Possible recovery measures include sanitary felling and artificial reforestation along the entire course of the SBs, with the exception of the areas unfit for sustaining forests. Forestry activities should include long-term basic tillage, planting of pure 2–3-row plantations mainly from large and medium shrubs, species composition differentiation within the SBs in accordance with the quality of the soil.