Silvicultural and classificatory analysis of forests of Dnipropetrovsk region

The total forest area of Dnipropetrovsk Region is 198,600 ha, of which 90,800 ha, 45.7% of the total area, comes under the administration of the Forestry and Hunting Department of Dnipropetrovsk Region. 65,700 haor 72.4% of the total surface of the area under the region’s Forestry and Hunting Administration is actually covered by forest vegetation. The most prevalent types of forests in the territory of the Forestry and Hunting Department of Dnipropetrovsk Region (FHDDR) are SD1H (dry pine-oak halogenic type), which takes up 13.1% of the forested area of Dnipropetrovsk region, D1H (dry oak halogenic forest) – 11.6%, D1BP (dry elm-maple-oak) – 10.7%, SB1OP (dry oak-pine) – 7.6% D2BP (mesophilous elm-maple-oak) – 7.8%, SD1P (dry maple-pine-oak) – 6.5%. Forests of the region are classified under environmental, scientific, historical, cultural, recreational and health, protection (erosion control) designations. Forests classified as having conservation, scientific, historical and cultural significance cover an area of 13,410 ha (14.8%) of the area under Dnipropetrovsk Region’s Forestry and Hunting Administration; recreational forests cover 45,841.5 ha (50.5%). One third of the forests under FHDDR are classified as protective forests. These are anti-erosion forests which cover an area of 31,478.5 ha (34.7%). Commercially exploitable forests do not exist in the region. According to forest regulations the total area protected by the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine subordinate to FHDDR is 12,952.6 ha. Objects of state importance are the Dnipro-Oril’ Nature Reserve (3,759.4 ha), wildlife reserves (4,903.1 ha) and natural monuments (8,718.5 ha). Areas and sites of local importance include regional landscape parks (2,157.0 ha), wildlife reserves (1,730.0 ha), natural monuments (105.3 ha), park monuments of landscape architecture (208.0 ha), nature reserve boundaries (33.8 ha). The dominant species of conifer is the pine with a total stand area of 16,189.8 ha. The other hard-leaved types of tree are species of Quercus L. – 20,288.2 ha, Robinia L. – 17,639.9 ha, Fraxinus L. – 3,200.1 ha, Acer L. – 864.2 ha, Ulmus L. – 860.3 ha and Gleditsia L. – 172.9 ha. Soft-leaved species in the forests of Dnipropetrovsk region are represented by the following genera Betula, Populus, Alnus, Tilia, Salix. The predominant among the identified age groups of Dnipropetrovsk region are the middle-aged and mature stands which occupy 40.2% (26,392.5 ha) and 39.7% (26,076.1 ha) of the forest