VISBY – planting a thousand trees in national park

In our Time for Forest project we are planting a thousand trees this time. The VISBY brand is helping us do this, and we are planting in the beautiful Stołowe Mountains Park.

Reconstruction of distorted habitats, dominated by spruce forests, is key to bringing the park’s forest stand as close to natural as possible.

Hence was born the initiative of VISBY to plant as many as 1,000 fir trees in the Park area! The planting took place in the fall of 2020.

Here one uses a hoe for planting due to the very difficult terrain full of roots.

93% of the park’s forest area is occupied by acidic (74%) and fertile (19%) Sudetic beech habitats, while the dominant species in Stołowe Mountains National Park stands today is spruce (about 78%). 50% of the Park’s stands are characterized by a species composition incompatible with the habitat, 35% are partially compatible, and only 15% of the stands are quite compatible.

At the same time, as a result of anthropogenic action and unfavorable environmental conditions in the 19th and 20th centuries, the proportion of silver fir in the park’s forests fell dramatically.

In 1998, it was 0.1% (and should have been around 20%).

This prevents its natural recovery and restoration. It is impossible without human intervention to restore degraded habitats to their natural character, especially in stands where the dynamics of spruce regeneration are very high. Therefore, the reconstruction of deformed habitats is possible only with active human participation.

At present, as a result of the park’s activities, the proportion of fir is steadily increasing, although for the time being these are mainly individuals up to 20 years old, requiring intensive protection from deer pressure. Every year, successive areas of spruce monocultures are rebuilt with the participation of species appropriate to the habitat (mainly fir and beech, sycamore, elm, linden, rowan) to bring the Park’s stands as close to natural as possible. The result of this task will be the continuation of the reconstruction of the Park’s stands. On subsequent plots, fir will be introduced as a species compatible with the habitat.

This fir tree is already 4 years old!

Stołowe Mountains National Park – where is it anyway?

The Stołowe Mountains National Park was established in 1993. It is located in the Stołowe Mountains in the Klodzko Basin, near the Polish-Czech border, and covers an area of 6340 hectares. The Park is famous for its beautiful and varied landscapes, which it owes mainly to the unusual rock formations of the Stołowe Mountains – the only plate-formed mountains in Poland, with sandstone outcrops that have resisted erosion over millions of years. In the park you will find many rock labyrinths, the most famous and attractive of which are located in the area bearing the name Błędne Skały, near the summit of Szczeliniec Wielki, which reaches 919 meters above sea level, or smaller ones such as Skalniak, Mnich, Skalne Grzyby.