Salvage felling in the Czech Republic‘s forests during the last twenty years

Abstract

Abstract The incidence of salvage felling is a significant indicator of stands‘ health and stability. Health is mainly indicated by biotic and anthropogenic factors, while abiotic effects are primarily an indicator of a stand’s stability. All these factors influence each other and subsequently they can result in salvage felling. For the Czech Republic, there have been relevant data for the period since 1964. Actually, recent data cover approximately 70% of the Czech Republic´s area in the twenty-year period assessed in this text. During this period, the volume of salvage felling amounted to 89.2 million m3 which represents 28.4% of total felling in this period. The largest share is caused by abiotic effects (18.6%), next by biotic agents (9.6%) and anthropogenic are only responsible for 0.2%. In the last two years, the volume of salvage felling caused by biotic agents was higher than the volume of salvage felling caused by abiotic and anthropogenic agents for the first time. In terms of biotic agents, almost the whole volume is represented by bark beetle wood as a result of spruce stands infestation by the European spruce bark beetle – Ips typographus (L.) and double-spined bark beetle – Ips duplicatus (Sahl.), and to a small extent also by other species of bark beetles on spruce, pine and occasionally other wood tree species. In the last three years, mainly the incidence of the Ips typographus L., has concentrated in North Moravia and Silesia. Currently, it is also spreading in South Moravia and Bohemia and in districts along the state borders with Austria and Germany, with the most serious situation in this region being the one in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands.