Rila Monastery Nature Park Management Plan - part - usaid

February 2004
photophilic character of this species and the existence of a temperature inversion. The
plots investigated belong to the habitat 42.5C2 Rhodope forests of Scots pine (Pinus
sylvestris L.), they occupying relatively small areas due to the highly articulated
terrain, causing a rapid alternation of exposures. The health condition of the studied
plots was found to be very good to good. The Scots pine shows great vitality, a very
good growth rate and insignificant damages, mostly mechanical. Only about 2.5 to
7.6% of all trees were found to be drying or dry, and mostly as a result of heavy snow
in Radovichka locality. Pathological deformities or diseases are extremely rare and
insignificant. The construction of the elevation 2000 canal has so far caused no
significant impact on the Scots pine forests around it. However, the tendency towards
draught, manifested in recent years, may increase that negative impact in the future.
5. Mixed coniferous (spruce-and-fir) forests
Spruce and fir constitute the most common forest vegetation in the area surveyed.
They occupy the altitudinal zone between 1,450 and 1,800m asl. Up to an altitude of
1,600 m these forests are mostly mixed, with predominance of the common fir (Abies
alba), and at higher altitudes, with a predominance of the spruce (Picea abies). These
can be referred to habitats 42.1613 Western Rhodope fir forests; 41.19122
Southwestern-Moesian beech-and-fir forests, and 42.2413 Moesian-Macedonian
spruce forests (Appendix 11). The spruce and fir forests are quite stable, adapted to
widely different soil conditions (mostly brown forest soils, rich and fresh to moist).
The habitats of common fir were found to be in satisfactory to good health (Appendix
11). One reason for the frequent and substantial damages found in these forests is the
high sensitivity of the common fir to severe draughts (quite common since 1982),
which caused the wholesale withering of the species in almost its entire natural range.
In the surveyed plots the spread of woodworms are relatively limited. Damages by
Pucciniastrum cariophillacerum (D.C.) Schr. are quite common. In these forests,
serious attention should be paid to the threat of snow drifts and damages as a result of
heavy snow, which may cause the breaking of trunks and limbs, the knocking down
of individual trees or even the clearing of spots amid the forest. In such forest
clearings, regeneration is difficult and slow, and mostly involves aspen, willow and,
only in part, spruce and fir.
The spruce (Picea abies) is in much better health condition both in mixed forests up
to 1,600m asl, and also in homogeneous spruce forests. The spruce trees show a very
good natural growth rate, high resilience and vitality. Drying and dry specimens are
rare and far apart, and range between 0 and 11.3% of all trees. Dead trees are mostly
knocked down by windfalls, or snow drifts, partly assisted by rotting of the roots. As
a whole, spruce forests were found to be in excellent health, regardless of altitude.
6. Macedonian pine forests
These forests trace the upper tree line within the Park, at altitudes between 1,800 and
2,100m asl. In such harsh climatic conditions, the Macedonian pine has managed to
form healthy, fast-growing forests, as clearly evidenced at the six sites surveyed
(Appendix 11). The Macedonian pine grows in homogeneous or mixed communities
Rila Monastery Nature Park
Management Plan -Draft
2004 - 2013
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