Rila Monastery Nature Park Management Plan - part - usaid

February 2004
practice of sending log rafts down the Rilska River. The known data about quantities
of timber extracted from the territory are presented chronologically in Table 23
below:
Table 23. Quantities of timber extracted from the territory of the present-day
Rila Monastery Nature Park during the period 1894-1999.
Period (years) Quantity (m³)
1894 – 1902 150,000
1902 – 1915 381,000
1924 – 1930 630,000
1930 – 1933 300,000
1944 – 1947 106,000
1948 – 1957 378,000
1958 – 1967 678,000
1968 – 1977 438,000
1978 – 1988 238,000
1989 – 1999 200,000
Total: 3,499,000
Since 1937, forestry activities in what is today the territory of Rila Monastery NP
have been performed pursuant to 10-year forest inventories, which between 1948 and
2000 were revised and updated once in 10 years. The main kinds of cutting practices
during that period were short-term/gradual, gradual, hollow-shaped/gradual and
hollow/shaped. Their planned intensity was often exceeded.
The logging and timber extraction methods and techniques used in early 20 th century
were primitive and inefficient. Trees were cut down with hand-held lumberman’s
saws; logs were dragged from the logging grounds to the upper stations of the slidingrunways
by horses or oxen.
New logging techniques only began to be introduced in the 1960s. Lumberman’s
saws gave way to chain saws. Cableways superseded donkeys and human power in
removing the logs from the logging grounds; and trucks beat rail transport as more
efficient, flexible and able to reach every point of the logging grounds. During the 80s
the tractors beat cableways for removing the extracted timber.
The first afforestation measures in the territory of present-day RMNP date from 80-90
years ago. The tree species used were mostly Scots pine and larch. In the 1950s,
afforestation increased considerably in intensity and scope. The used species during
this period are Scots pine, spruce, common fir, giant sequoia, larch, Douglas fir,
sycamore, birch, ash, chestnut, etc. The territories where afforestation was practiced
were concentrated between the village of Pastra and Brichebor, on both banks of the
Rilska River, and to a lesser extent, on the southern and northern slopes along the
Iliyna River.
Traditional forestry practices of the local population are the gathering of firewood,
the cutting of young saplings for poles, beams and girders; and the extraction of tree
Rila Monastery Nature Park
Management Plan -Draft
2004 - 2013
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