Wood pastures in Central Slovakia – collapse of a traditional land use form
Wood pastures with pollard trees have been a common land-use type across Europe. The trees, besides having positive environmental effects on livestock, served as important source of fodder and wood. Pollarded wood pastures were hence a multifunctional, state of the art, highly productive farming eco...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Agriculture in Krakow
2018-12-01
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| Series: | Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Formatio Circumiectus |
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| Online Access: | http://www.formatiocircumiectus.actapol.net/pub/17_4_109.pdf |
| _version_ | 1826907649349779456 |
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| author | Michal Wiezik Tomáš Lepeška Igor Gallay Juraj Modranský Branislav Olah Adela Wieziková |
| author_facet | Michal Wiezik Tomáš Lepeška Igor Gallay Juraj Modranský Branislav Olah Adela Wieziková |
| author_sort | Michal Wiezik |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Wood pastures with pollard trees have been a common land-use type across Europe. The trees, besides having positive environmental effects on livestock, served as important source of fodder and wood. Pollarded wood pastures were hence a multifunctional, state of the art, highly productive farming ecosystems. Despite relatively drastic treatment, the trees regenerated quite well, and grew to relatively high-age. When pollarding lapses for longer period the wood pasture may confusingly resemble an ancient forest. Using aerial photographs of Slovakia from 1949–1950 we have identified 950 individual wood pasture localities with total area of 265.5 km2 within the Self-Governing Region of Banská Bystrica. Majority of identified wood pasture habitats were actively managed in the first half of the 20th century. Nowadays, less than 2.5% has preserved its original structure, the rest has been abandoned (92.8%) or actively transformed into different land-use form. We conducted a field survey in order to identify historical pollarding within the Gavurky protected area, one of the last and best preserved wood pastures in Slovakia. By evaluating habitual features, we were able to confirm historical pollarding for more than 80% of present veteran trees. We provide framework for identification of pollarding in historical wood pasture localities, applicable in the conditions of long-term management cessation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T14:23:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-75f37cbb27b64647a801235ad1b1eb11 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1644-0765 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-17T09:09:14Z |
| publishDate | 2018-12-01 |
| publisher | University of Agriculture in Krakow |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Formatio Circumiectus |
| spelling | doaj.art-75f37cbb27b64647a801235ad1b1eb112025-01-02T15:48:50ZengUniversity of Agriculture in KrakowActa Scientiarum Polonorum. Formatio Circumiectus1644-07652018-12-0117410911910.15576/ASP.FC/2018.17.4.109Wood pastures in Central Slovakia – collapse of a traditional land use formMichal Wiezik0Tomáš Lepeška1Igor Gallay2Juraj Modranský3Branislav Olah4Adela Wieziková5Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in ZvolenDepartment of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in ZvolenDepartment of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in ZvolenDepartment of Landscape Planning and Design; Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Technical University in ZvolenDepartment of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in ZvolenDepartment of Biology and General Ecology; Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Technical University in ZvolenWood pastures with pollard trees have been a common land-use type across Europe. The trees, besides having positive environmental effects on livestock, served as important source of fodder and wood. Pollarded wood pastures were hence a multifunctional, state of the art, highly productive farming ecosystems. Despite relatively drastic treatment, the trees regenerated quite well, and grew to relatively high-age. When pollarding lapses for longer period the wood pasture may confusingly resemble an ancient forest. Using aerial photographs of Slovakia from 1949–1950 we have identified 950 individual wood pasture localities with total area of 265.5 km2 within the Self-Governing Region of Banská Bystrica. Majority of identified wood pasture habitats were actively managed in the first half of the 20th century. Nowadays, less than 2.5% has preserved its original structure, the rest has been abandoned (92.8%) or actively transformed into different land-use form. We conducted a field survey in order to identify historical pollarding within the Gavurky protected area, one of the last and best preserved wood pastures in Slovakia. By evaluating habitual features, we were able to confirm historical pollarding for more than 80% of present veteran trees. We provide framework for identification of pollarding in historical wood pasture localities, applicable in the conditions of long-term management cessation.http://www.formatiocircumiectus.actapol.net/pub/17_4_109.pdfsilvo-pastoral systemspollardingpannagetraditional land-useland use change |
| spellingShingle | Michal Wiezik Tomáš Lepeška Igor Gallay Juraj Modranský Branislav Olah Adela Wieziková Wood pastures in Central Slovakia – collapse of a traditional land use form Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Formatio Circumiectus silvo-pastoral systems pollarding pannage traditional land-use land use change |
| title | Wood pastures in Central Slovakia – collapse of a traditional land use form |
| title_full | Wood pastures in Central Slovakia – collapse of a traditional land use form |
| title_fullStr | Wood pastures in Central Slovakia – collapse of a traditional land use form |
| title_full_unstemmed | Wood pastures in Central Slovakia – collapse of a traditional land use form |
| title_short | Wood pastures in Central Slovakia – collapse of a traditional land use form |
| title_sort | wood pastures in central slovakia collapse of a traditional land use form |
| topic | silvo-pastoral systems pollarding pannage traditional land-use land use change |
| url | http://www.formatiocircumiectus.actapol.net/pub/17_4_109.pdf |
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