The ancestral conservative tillage of silver fir in the "Tisovik" reserve of the Bialowieza Primeval Forest

The ‘Tisovik’reserve, located in the Belarusian part of the Białowieża Forest, holds an isolated relic stand of silver fir, situated 120 km to the north-east of the main forest. In order to preserve this relic fir stand, a ancestral conservative tillage consisting of the Jd 92 trial (plot I) and the Jd 94 trial (plots II and III) was established between 1992 and 1994 in the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest on the territory of the Hajnówka Forest District. The growth and development of the progeny of 20 firs were characterized by means of long-term observations made in these trials. In 2000 (at the age of 18), the firs in the Jd 92 trial (plot I) reached an average height of 394.86 cm with a mean diameter at breast height of 42.42 mm and the average rate of survival amounted to 75%. In the Jd 94 trial, the rate of fir survival on plot II was 70% (at the age of 15) with an average height of 277.08 cm and a diameter at breast height of 36.62 mm, while on plot III only 50 trees with an average height of 198.6 cm and a diameter at breast height of 24.49 mm survived. The results of this study show that the fir progeny in the ‘Tisovik’ reserve is of high breeding value. Therefore, the silver fir seed stock of the ‘Tisovik’ reserve is suitable for the establishment of new plantations in the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest and the Mazury-Podlasie Region

Growth of Ulmus glabra Huds. grafts in the clone archive in Bielsk Forest District

Vegetative progeny were obtained from 46 elms (Ulmus glabra Huds.) by grafting. These grafted trees were planted in 2009 in a clone archive in forest plot 264j in the Bielsk Forest District. After one year of growth, elm clone survival ranged from 38% to 100% (89% on average). Although all clones were of similar age and were grown under similar conditions, their average height was highly variable and ranged from 99.0 cm (clone no. 9473z) to 186.6 cm (clone no. 9645z), while average root collar diameter ranged from 8.4mm (clone no. 9473z) to 18.0 mm (clone no. 9645z). There were large differences crown architectural among the different clones, and variation in average shape of the crown was high (from 2.6 in clone no. 9655 to 3.8 in clone no. 9446z). Index breeding values determined on the standardized data for height, root collar diameter, crown shape and survival, ranged from -0.71 (clone no. 9473z) to 0.61 (clone no. 9645z). Clones from Czerwony Dwór reached a better breeding value (0.17) than clones from Gołdap (-0.0266), and variation in their average breeding values was high (0.197)