In the woods, the future is

It is gray, cold, and it rains. Boleslaw Bobrzyk is still in a tidier mood. "It's a good day." It is the rain, to cheer him up. The summer was dry, last Winter no snow fell practically. He was expecting up to half a Meter, this is normal. "The groundwater level is now two meters lower than usual," says the forestry engineer at the forestry Department of the Katowice forest district. "Maybe it's the climate change," he smiles in reference to the climate change conference, which takes place for two weeks in Katowice.

to feel In every sentence he speaks during the travel to the city in the middle of the forest, is Proud. A good 40 percent of the urban area of Katowice are covered with forest. He will present the travelling journalists with an intact forest. Despite the difficult environmental conditions. Katowice is the capital of the Polish district of Silesia. Here are some 300'000 people live, and the industrial Agglomeration around Katowice is the largest in Poland. It is rich in coal and ore deposits. Not far away from the centre of a coal-fired power station, which supplies the city of heat and electricity. It belongs to the energy producer Tauron, which belongs to the group of large energy companies, which occur at the climate conference as a Sponsor.

forest area

lost The journey by Bus takes not more than 20 minutes, the city limit is reached, and the road flows into the largest forest area in the district, comprising a total of 14 cities and municipalities and a surface area of around 140 square kilometres, covering a patch in the total forest area in Poland, with about 73000 square kilometers, almost twice as large as Switzerland.

target is the 20-Meter-high observation tower in the nature reserve Murckowski. He rises far above the tops of the trees. From up there you have the Overview, whether there is a fire somewhere. "In October there are especially a lot of forest fires," says reserve Manager Grzegoroz Skuraczah. In terms of fire, this area documents a top position in Europe. Therefore, an effective fire was built up protection, with a network of Observation towers and a regular air monitoring.

Foliage - soft to the conifers

The forests are particularly under Stress, especially by the people. You would distribute the forest area, that would mean every resident of about ten square meters of forest. This is 20 times less than the national average. The burden of mass tourism and recreation-seekers from the Agglomeration has grown. The local government has, therefore, more than 90 percent of the district forest under protection.

The forest people, but also for another reason to Murckowski. In the nature reserve is a natural forest still stands with old beech and oak trees. These tree species are dominant in the forests of Katowice, in Poland. Nearly 70 percent of the forest area is coniferous trees, of which more than half of the pines are today. At the end of the 18th century. Century were covered 40 percent of the land area with forest, mainly deciduous trees. The industrialization and during the Second world war the large demand for Wood in the war fronts led to deforestation.

deciduous trees are less sensitive

the end of the war, only half of the original forest area was available. The Polish government launched a reforestation plan, the sat, however, on fast-growing pine trees. A shock was followed in the ' 80s, as acid rain is created by the exhaust gases of coal-fired power plants, forest die-back caused.

In Katowice to think of the Forester. The forest is no longer rejuvenated by pine trees, but Beeches, oaks and birches. "The deciduous trees are more resistant to air pollution," says Boleslaw Bobrzyk. The forestry engineer is not hiding, that sulphur, nitrogen and Soot from the coal-fired power plants and the coal heating of the residential houses are still a Problem – although the sulphur and the Russgehalt have decreased in the last few years. More and more heat energy is supplied by solar, geothermal and wood, but the lion's share is produced by the combustion of coal. This is even more true for the current production, which is covered to 90 percent by coal-fired power plants.

Nine mines in the forest district

The air quality in the cities of Silesia, is regarded in Europe as being particularly bad. The European court of justice noted last spring that Poland between 2007 and 2015, reaching the EU's air quality demanded in any way. Who walks in these cold days through the city centre of Katowice, know what we are talking about here.

Even in the forest you can feel the burning coal in the air. It is precisely in the nature Ochojec, the next Station of the trip to the reserve. Here is a Mine destroyed once a part of the landscape. Today, an intact forest is growing again. Only a pond with upright dead tree trunks that reminds you of the bad times. The mine work in the underground leaves a deep mark. It is garbage pits occur, the groundwater level is lowered, or the risk for Flooding increases. In the Katowice forest district, has been restored part of the destruction with success. "The biodiversity is increasing in these zones," says Boleslaw Bobrzyk. But still in the forest district, nine mines are in operation.

forest is a hedge

The forest engineer takes no sheet before the mouth: "we need the coal power, but you need to disappear, also because of climate change." That President Andrzej Duda can also imagine with the coal-fired power sustainable development for Poland, has not commented on it. He grins. For the health and further growth of the forest, the Polish government will do all that.

The trees are a hedge. You can store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the air to grow. The amount is in the year, according to the calculations of the government of 31 million tonnes. This means that less than 10 percent of the emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel can be compensated for by the Forest services. Or otherwise: Poland needs to invest less in renewable energy.

cold adapted trees are drought tolerate bad

Switzerland is warmer and drier in the course of climate change. The more frequent and longer dry phases, not only to crops, but also forest trees. In the Alpine highlands, it could be for trees is difficult, as an international team of scientists in the journal "Nature Communications". Research the question from Canada, Germany and the Swiss Federal research Institute for forest, snow and landscape research (WSL), why some trees withstand drought better than others. They used pine for a long-term experiment with canadian Coast. These cold-adapted trees in the North of Canada tolerate hardly any dryness.

drought-tolerant seedlings

over 30 years Ago, seedlings of these pines were transplanted from the cold damp forests of Northern Canada in warmer regions, and so a warming of the climate simulated. The researchers, the biological background of the low drought tolerance of this tree species is investigated now on the basis of the annual rings of grown pine trees.

The results show that the trees are adapted from these Northern, cold regions is physiologically bad to severe dryness. For example, the transplanted trees during drought, timber walls, cells with very thin cell. This makes them prone to damages to your water system during times of drought. In addition, it turned out that the trees can apparently regulate the pores in their leaves (stomata) in the case of drought is bad, in order to reduce water losses.

According to the WSL, the results for Switzerland and the trees in the higher altitudes of the Alps interesting: While the growth conditions can be improved by the warming temporarily, increasing dry periods could make use of this advantage, however, to nothing. The forestry could set out, however, by planting drought-tolerant seedlings from more southerly regions. (sda)

(editing Tamedia)

Created: 13.12.2018, 19:56 PM