Evolution of Spontaneous Forest Vegetation Established Ooutside the Forest Fund in the Apuseni Mountains

Abstract

The Apuseni Mountains are a mountain group found in the central-western part of Romania, that once were being densely forested, Lately, part of these lands were no longer used for agricultural purposes, becoming naturally.In the present work, naturally afforested areas outside the forest fund were identified and the main tree growth parameters were determined. The data were taken within the National Forest Inventory (NFI), the sample areas being materialized in the field during 2008-2011, when the first measurements were made. It returned with measurements in the period 2014-2017 and in 2020-2024 period. Most of the surfaces were identified and materialized near the national forest fund, some along some valleys, and few are within agricultural or grazing lands. The main species identified were: birch, aspen and over time spruce and beech settled in. The agricultural lands that, in the past, served the needs of agricultural crops and grazing, currently uncultivated, are naturally afforested, with pioneer species (silver birch, poplars, willows), and lately with valuable species such as spruce, beech, etc. These extensions of the vegetation outside the forest area have an important role in the future increase of the forest fund and preventing the occurrence of soil degradation phenomena