Rila Monastery Nature Park Management Plan - part - usaid

February 2004
Distribution of the forest estate by age groups
The age of the forest in Rila Monastery Nature Park is directly dependent on the
biological peculiarities of the constituent tree species; on the ecological and
environmental conditions of vegetation growth; and on the human impact. The
longevity of the main arboreal species in RMNP: beech, spruce, common fir,
Macedonian pine, oak, Scots pine as well as the favorable conditions for their growth,
have enabled the existence of centuries-old forests in the Park’s territory. At present,
53.7% of all trees in the Park are aged 100 years or over (FI 2000). However, forest
use in the Park’s territory over the last century has had its negative impact on its age
structure. The commercial over-logging of mature tree specimens in the recent past
has inhibited the natural increase in the average age of the forest. While a century ago
the aggregate age of forests in what is today RMNP was 103 years, since then it has
decreased to 99 years. The distribution of forests and tree specimens per age brackets
is shown in Table 16. Approximately ¾ of the forests of the reserve are aged 120
years or over. Here the average age is considerably higher than in the rest of RMNP
(Table 17).
Table 16: Distribution of the wooded areas by age categories in RMNP
Age (yrs) 1-20 21-40 41-60 61-80 81-100 101- 121- 141- Total
120 140 160
Area (ha) 209.2 793.8 423.5 780.4 1,426.6 1,462.8 1,507.2 1,247.0 7,850.5
% 2.7 10.1 5.4 9.9 18.2 18.6 19.2 15.9 100.0
Table 17: Distribution of the wooded areas by age categories in Rila Monastery
Forest Reserve
Age 21-40 41-60 61-80 81- 101- 121- 141- 161- 181- 201 + Total
(yrs)
100 120 140 160 180 200
Area
(ha)
34.9 167.4 144.2 48.8 153.4 434.8 369.7 458.0 372.0 141.8 2,325.0
% 1.5 7.2 6.2 2.1 6.6 18.7 15.9 19.7 16.0 6.1 100.0
Distribution of the forest estate by age groups
Timber resources are the products of a favorable combination of factors, most of
which were described above: age, habitat, bonity, altitude, exposure, and terrain. The
forests of Rila Monastery Nature Park hold at present an estimated 2,267,195 m³
timber biomass. Of that amount, 62.5% is in forests aged 100 or over, while 37.4% is
in forests up to 100 years-old. Table 18 shows the distribution of timber resources by
age category.
Table 18: Distribution of timber resources by age category
Age (yrs) 1-20 21-40 41-60 61-80 81-100 101-120 121-140 141-160 Total
Resource 4,220 122,11 80,970 226,16 414,54 499,175 503,685 416,320 2,267,19
(m³)
5
5 5
5
% 0.2 5.4 3.6 10.0 18.3 22.0 22.2 18.3 100.0
The average timber resource for the entire Park territory is thus 250 m³/ha, and the
average annual growth, 2.72 m³/ha.
Rila Monastery Nature Park
Management Plan -Draft
2004 - 2013
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