Acta Scientiarum Polonorum
Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria

Abstract The study presents the health condition and structure of pine stands growing on permanent experimental plots in the Kwidzyn Forest Division, the Ryjewo working circle, the Lisewo Forest District. Forest mensuration analyses were performed in a 127-year old pine stand (compartment 214), in five plots of 0.26 ha each. The health condition of the stand was determined on the basis of the losses of the assimilatory organs, i.e. defoliation. Mean defoliation of tree crowns was 20.3% (below the warning level), which corresponds to the damage rate of 1.14. A vast majority, i.e. 67% of the 176 analysed trees, represented damage rate 1 (Table 2). Taking into consideration the age of the stand (127 years) and its provenance (it was planted on former farmland) the health condition may be considered good. The structure of social classes of tree position in the stand shows an appropriate share of the upper storey (81.2-95.1%) and the second storey (4.9-18.8%). When analysing the basic characteristics of the stand structure it was found that the biggest variation was observed in crown length (from 17% to 30%), while the smallest – in height (from 6% to 9%). The mean relative crown length in the stands ranged from 0.21 to 0.24. Tree slenderness, defining resistance of trees to damage caused by wind and snow took mean values below 1.0 (from 0.71 to 0.83). This shows good stability of the analysed stands. Those stands are characterized by high yields of 465-614 m3 large timber per 1 ha and stocking of 1.0 to 1.3. As a result of the analyses of the interdependencies between the basic mensuration characteristics the most significant relationship was found for diameter at breast height and slenderness (from –0.718 to –0.913), height and absolute crown length (0.619-0.715) and diameter at breast height and height (0.161-0.708; Table 4). The trends in the annual increment in diameter at breast height showed the biggest decreases in the years 1977-1983, 1969-1974, 1962-1967, 1956-1960 and 1949-1952 (Fig. 6). Those periods coincide with gradations of nun moths and adverse weather conditions.