Logging

LOGGING

They keep cutting. The Knyszyn Forest should be a national park, yet it is still managed as a commercial forest with all the consequences. Timber is needed, of course, but the scale of logging and the way it is carried out raise serious doubts. Old-growth stands are cut, and trees are removed even in areas where the forest protects water resources. After logging, the forest floor is often irreversibly damaged by deep ploughing. Such ploughed clear-cuts then dry out at a shocking pace. I often feel that the State Forests do not see themselves as stewards of the forest, but as its sole owners.