Lucrarea pe care o reproducem în acest număr al revistei Bucovina Forestieră constituie o continuare a celei prezentate în numărul anterior, care evoca întemeierea și perioada de început a învățământului silvic în Regatul României, desfășurată în cea de-a doua jumătate al sec. al XIX-lea Aceasta continuă prezentarea retrospectivă a învățământului superior silvic din România pe durata primelor 3 decenii ale sec. XX, între 1906 și 1933. Prezentarea este împărțită pe 2 perioade distincte: (i) perioada 1906-1923, subîmpărțită, la rândul ei, în două secvențe separate de primul război mondial, respectiv anterioară (1906-1916) și posterioară (1919-1923) războiului; (ii) perioada 1923-1933.

Peste câteva zile, Asociația Administratorilor de Păduri (AAP) va împlini 13 ani de la înregistrarea oficială. Organizația, înființată cu respectarea Ordonanței 26/2000, are obiective de bun simț, scopul principal al uniunii fiind, de asemenea, generos și încurajator: ”gospodărirea durabilă a pădurilor, gestionarea ariilor naturale protejate, conservarea naturii prin acțiuni și proiecte care aduc beneficii reale mediului înconjurător. Informarea și educarea în scopul conservării biodiversității și promovării unei atitudini responsabile față de natură”. Deocamdată, asociația include 104 membri, ce au în proprietate păduri diverse, din mai toate regiunile țării, ce însumează peste un milion de hectare. Președintele în exercițiu al AAP este domnul inginer Gabriel Stanciu, specialist cunoscut pentru competența și experiența sa în domeniul silvic. Domnia Sa a acceptat să acorde un amplu interviu publicației Bucovina Forestieră vorbind deschis despre cum este privită silvicultura în România, ce dificultăţi întâmpină proprietarii privaţi de pădure, care este relaţia cu Romsilva şi care ar fi metodele prin care silvicii români să redevină, în ochii opiniei publice, bravii şi responsabilii apărători ai pădurilor.

Technical harvesting ages were calculated for the main wood species in Romania: Norway spruce, silver fir, Austrian pine, European larch, European beech, sessile oak, pedunculated oak, Turkey oak, Hungarian oak, European hornbeam, silver birch, silver linden, willow, black locust, silver poplar and black poplar. Target wood assortments considered in the study were established based on dimensional assortments presented in the Romanian sorting tables. The actuality and the relevance of this study is given by several factors, such as the diversification of ownership structure over the forest lands in Romania and the necessity of technical harvesting ages established for a wider range of wood assortments than those presented in the Romanian technical norms for forest management planning. Since the current technical harvesting ages are based on the old Romanian yield tables and taking into account the numerous changes of the Romanian forest laws, an upgrade of harvesting ages was necessary. | În curând

Forest restitution was a common process for former communist countries in Eastern Europe. The way this process was conducted in Romania, corroborated with inadequate legislation and lack of enforcement mechanisms, constituted the reason for improper forest management in many regions. The study is assessing, in a comparative manner, the effects of forest management in state and private forests over the structure of the growing stock and over the wood production sustainability. The private forests were managed without a forest management plan while the forests owned by state were managed according to forest management plans prescriptions. It was found that, in the case of private forests, the growing stock structure against age classes, analysed in respect to forest composition and density, was seriously affected by the anthropogenic interventions directed by no management rule. The simulations of the growing stock evolution revealed that in the case of private forests, the optimization of current growing stock will be possible after more than 180 years. In the scenario when their management would have been ruled according to the provisions of a forest management plan, the growing stock optimization would have been possible in about 120 years. In addition, the analysis of the economic efficiency of the practiced forest management in the private forests shows that the net yearly income per hectare is less than 13% from the income that could have been achieved if the forests would have been managed according to the original forest management plan.

In this article we present an application of the IBP index (Potential Biodiversity Index), used for assessing potential biodiversity in forest stands. The proposed index is based on the score of ten factors: seven are related to forest management (structural particularities of the forest) and three are related to environmental context. The study was conducted in a mixed forest located in Ursoaia area from Frasin, Suceava Forest Department, Romania. The factors were evaluated in 96 plots from 6 forest stands, 3 of them included in a scientific reservation, and 3 are timber production stands. The index values were calculated for each plot, and further for each forest stand. Index values varied from a stand to another, also within the same stand, from one sample plot to another according to the specific feature identified in each plot. The index values were higher in the stands included in the scientific reservation. This is explained by the number of tree species, the high number of large trees, the vertical structure of the stands, the amount of dead wood. IBP – index is a good tool to evaluate the forest biodiversity. The results can be analyzed for longer periods of time, and also may indicate the factors that can be improved by specific actions

The paper restituted in the present issue of the journal represents a retrospective of academic silvicultural education from Romania during the first decades of the 20th century, between the years 1906 and 1933. The presentation is divided into the following distinct periods: (i) 1906-1923, subdivided into sequences separated by the First World War: before the war (1906-1916) and after the war (1919-1923): (ii) period 1923-1933. This paper is a continuation of the one presented in the previous issue of the journal, that evoqued the establishment and the beginning moments of silvicultural education in the Romanian Kingdom in the second half of the 19th century. If for almost half of a century, at the beginnings, the academic silvicultural education was characterised by turmoil, hesitations and improvisations, the establishing of the Sivicultural School at Brănești, in 1894, brought a remarkable progress and upgrade. The activity of the Superior Silvicultural School from Brănești was brutally interrupted after 22 years with the entrance of Romania in the First World War (1916), and the academic silvicultural education returned to a provisional state until 1923, when it is enclosed in The Polythechnical School of Bucharest under the name of Silvicultural section. Here, the academic silvicultural education knows a new period of stability and progress that would last 25 years until the reform of academic education conducted by the communists in 1948. Organising silvicultural education in Romania between the wars established through the law from 1923 led to a very well instructed staff at all levels of silvicultural administration and to the recrutation of didactic and research professionals so necessary that gave remarkable results in the silvicultural administration.

The importance of green spaces in urban areas is a concept more and more discussed and included in the political agenda. Investments in green infrastructure can change the perception of residents, visitors or future investors about the attractiveness of a city. However, such investments are not easy to be achieved. Besides the human and financial capital necessary for the physical realization of the investments, an essential aspect is the perception of the inhabitants or visitors about the possible alternatives to combine the recreation facilities with the forest-specific natural landscapes. The object of this study is represented by the forest surrounding the Suceava citadel, named Șipote Dendrological Park. The area is a public owned forest and currently has recreational and soil protection functions assigned. In this context, the main purpose of the research is to identify the perception of the local community regarding alternatives of transforming this urban forest into a forest park. The specific objective of the research are: 1) the identification of community’s preferences for alternative strategies involving cutting of different sizes of forest to create recreational facilities; 2) the identification of preferences regarding the recreational facilities desired in an urban forest; 3) the identification of the willingness to pay for the investments nedeed to create a forest park. To assess the value of ecosystem services that are preferred by the local community we have used the contingent valuation method that helps identify consumers’ preferences over a range of alternatives. The method was based on the creation of three credible scenarios to test the alternatives for setting up different recreational facilities in the urban forest. The scenarios are identified based on a list of recreational facilities which imply interventions in cutting the forest as: S1-no forest cuts, S2-a cut of less than 30% of the forest area and S3-a cut of more than 30% of the forest area. In total, 305 questionnaires have been applied to identify citizens’ preferences which assures a confidence interval of 5.6%. The results show that the local community wants to retain the recreational function offered by the presence of the forest and desires in addition investments involving the creation of facilities for outdoor activities. Most of the surveyed participants are in favour of the second scenario and will like to have investments in cycling trails, kids’ playgrounds, fountains and an artificial lake. Nevertheless, the majority of the respondents are not willing to pay an entrance fee to compensate the value of additional facilities.

Alluding the two lanes separated by a long curb, dangerous for bikers running on the right lane and annoying for regular drivers, running on the left lane of Calea Victoriei (a one-way famous drive crossing Bucharest center), some comments concerning the opportunities and risks pending on two important regulations required by the Romania Forest Act, as amended in 2015, are presented. The first regulation, already in place for two years, changed two times and yet inconclusive for most of the stakeholders (logging companies, wood industry and forest administration), has created a series of troubles due to some too detailed articles, meant to discourage illegal logging. The details are so precise that laypeople are discouraged to request information whether or not a load of wood comes from legal or illegal fellings (actually they are fined if the transport is legal), while forest rangers are discouraged to put into value salvage cuttings, because the information system doesn’t allow the foresters to bring down the logs’ quality (loss of timber quality is inevitable in salvage cuttings after windthrow, due to internal tensions brought about by many trees fallen on each other). If that regulation seems to be disastrous for logging industry, this could be a good signal that things are heading to the right direction, in the sense that a lot of companies are welcome to leave the market of logging operations, where the demand of timber is so high that prices cannot be controlled. In other terms, a disputable regulation, which is troublesome in many respects, might work as a negative feed-back loop, which is beneficial for the forest health. The second regulation, still loitering on someone’s desk (the bill was handed over to the government by the end of 2016), refers to non-wood forest products. A series of opportunities this regulation might create are discussed at length, because some activities focused on non-wood could be financed by the Rural Development Program, provided that regulation is in place. Finally the editorial sheds light on the responsibility undertaken by whoever has been getting involved in drafting such regulations, that must obey the same Hippocratic principle: “if you cannot help, at least try not to harm”.

The third edition of the national student conference in forestry took place between 26 and 27 of May 2017 and it was hosted by the Faculty of Silviculture, Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava. Thirty-one papers were presented by students originating from five universities, namely Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Transilvania University of Brașov, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest and University of Oradea. Forest Protection, Hunting, Forest Seeds, Forest Planning, GIS, Torrent’s Control, Silviculture were among the main topics of the presentations. The main aim of the meeting was to gather together students interested in forestry issues. Moreover, the conference was a good opportunity for the participants to share information and best practices