VIRGIN FORESTS AND FOREST RESERVES IN ... - Natura 2000

114 Hundred Years of Virgin Forest Conservation in Slovenia
Under the shelter of mature trees a new life emerges in a virgin forest. This shelter offers
to young plants safety against snow, sleet, cold..., and represents a screen against light. In
such conditions only the most vital trees can survive and thrive.
Despite monolithic appearance, a virgin forest is variegated. In small areas three
developmental phases are interwoven all the time; the regeneration phase, the mature
phase, and the ageing phase. Spatial distribution of developmental phases, as well as the
ratio between them, change. The proportion of the mature, optimal phase- in its full
strength and stability, providing the forest safety and firmness - is always prevailing.
The role of dead trees in a virgin forest is quite special. A new microcosm emerges in
slowly decaying stems - a home and a rich table for numerous organisms like fungi, birds,
etc. which represent an important part of the ecosystem. A dry fir tree becomes more alive
(with micro-organisms) than it used to be when it was still a green vital tree.
A virgin forest environment becomes more and more important, with all the accuracy
typical of the evolution processes. It is ready for natural ‘unpredictabilities’, yet not for
human influences - polluted air, acid rain and copious game. The automatism and
permanence of one of the most stable natural formations has become severely endangered.
FOREST RESERVES IN SLOVENIA
Most of the virgin forest reserves in Slovenia have been conserved in high karst plateaus
where fir and beech grow. Foresters - for whom natural forests are laboratories - have
spread the net of forest reserves throughout Slovenia.
The lowland forests (in Prekmurje, on the Karst) have also been left to natural
development as well. Apart from the virgin forests, between the years 1970 - 1980, 170
new forest reserves have been protected, 9000 hectares in total. According to the project,
which started in 1997, a total of 236 forest reserves are previewed, covering the area of
14,416 hectares. Regarding forest reserves the markings are unified. Blue colour marks
the division limits. Information tables are placed in visible positions, directing one’s
attention to the exceptional character of the protected area. It is quite clear, no cuttings
will be performed here anymore, no flowers are allowed to be picked, no fire lit, no noise
made. Foresters guide the numerous visitors.
The following (Table 1) is the specification of the areas from the list of forest reserves in
Slovenia, which can be called virgin forests due to the conserved character of the
ecosystem and the designation ‘primeval, primeval character, primeval forest’:
Within the project called Forest Reserves of Slovenia, under the patronage of the Forestry
Institute of Slovenia, the Forestry Department of the Biotechnical Faculty, and Prof. Dr.
Dušan Mlinšek, numerous research projects are being conducted, some of them already
published in professional monograph form. The long-life character of a virgin forest
ecosystem requires careful and constant recording of data, slowly building up a mosaic of
knowledge on the life of a virgin forest.
The net of forest reserves will become even denser; they will also be introduced ‘sound
cells’ in the environment of other non-forest ecosystems, because the links between them
and the variety of animal life have been severely injured in many places.