Tatra region remembers 10th anniversary of wind calamity

A PERSON can never win the fight with nature and has to adapt, said Pavol Majko, head of the Administration of the Tatra National Park (TANAP) on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the wind calamity in the High Tatras, the SITA newswire reported.

A PERSON can never win the fight with nature and has to adapt, said Pavol Majko, head of the Administration of the Tatra National Park (TANAP) on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the wind calamity in the High Tatras, the SITA newswire reported.

The wind storm hit the area on November 19, 2004 and destroyed together 126 million square metres of the woods, while the wind broke or uprooted three million cubic metres of trees.

According to foresters from State Forests TANAP, one of the main problems accompanying the recovery of the destroyed areas is the outbreak of the bark beetle, especially in the areas with the highest level of protection where the law prohibits removing and processing the calamity wood. During the past 10 years the bark beetle has destroyed the wood on the area exceeding 70 million square metres, SITA wrote.

“TANAP is a park and to fight with parts of the nature, like the bark beetle, at any price seems far-fetched to me,” Majko said, as quoted by SITA.

He added he understands that for tourists it is depressive that the woods disappeared so quickly. According to him, the nature is gradually recovering.

Lenka Burdová from State Forests TANAP said that in the areas above the Road of Freedom, where there is higher protection level, the forest was completely destroyed by the bark beetle. Different situation is below the Road of Freedom where new forest grows. The reason is that there is lower protection level and the foresters were allowed to remove the downed trees, as reported by the TASR newswire.

The foresters also try to mix the kinds of trees in the area as much as possible, Burdová added. The reason of having more larch and pine trees is to stabilise the areas in order to withstand the strong wind.

Environment Minister Peter Žiga said that the calamity and subsequent extension of bark beetle opened a new chapter in relations to the highest level of protection of nature.

“After turbulent development and disputes, whose consequences we feel also today, we can say that the nature has won in the oldest national park,” Žiga said, as quoted by SITA. “But it will be future generations that will fully see its victory.”

Source: SITA, TASR

Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports

The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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