Acta Scientiarum Polonorum
Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria

The investigation was conducted in a 32-year-old pine stand, growing on a fresh coniferous site in western Poland. The strip roads in the stand had been designed and cut along tree rows 5 years prior to the investigation. The analysis focused on trees growing at 12 strip roads, in 3-meter-wide stripes on both sides of the strip roads and in control zones, half-way between each two neighbouring strip roads. The trees growing on the stripes along the strip roads were divided into three zones corresponding to tree rows.
The first zone (I) was formed by trees growing in the row directly at the strip roads, while the zones two (zone II) and three (zone III) were formed by trees growing in the second and third rows of trees away from the strip roads, respectively, on both sides of the strip roads. The average distances of the zones two and three from the strip roads were 1.5 and 3 m, respectively. The diameters at breast height (DBH) of all the trees growing in the respective zones were measured. Moreover, the widths of the strip roads were measured, which resulted in dividing the strip roads into two groups: the wider strip roads (average width 3.6 m) and the narrower ones (average width 2.9 m). The statistical analysis showed significant differences in DBH values between the analysed zones, for nine of the strip roads. Both in the case of the wider strip roads, as well as in the case of the narrower ones, the trees growing directly along the strip roads were usually thicker than the more distant trees. A statistically significant difference between the DBH values of trees from zone I and II was found for one strip road. In most cases the trees from zone I were statistically thicker than the trees growing in the control zone.