The International Day of Forests is celebrated every year on March 21. This day is dedicated to raising awareness and reminding of the importance of forests for humanity and the environment. Forests are important for biodiversity conservation, climate regulation, soil and water conservation, as well as for providing important resources and services for people, such as wood, food, medicinal plants, places for recreation and many others. The International Day of Forests is an opportunity to highlight this importance and to express support for the conservation and sustainable management of forests around the world.
Approximately 90% of the territory of the Veľká Fatra is covered by forests. Many of them are valuable evidence of the development of forest communities of the Carpathian type with the occurrence of numerous rare and endangered species. The Veľká Fatra is also characterized by a large concentrated occurrence of yew, which is also in the emblem of the Veľká Fatra National Park. Especially in more extreme locations, where forests have not been significantly affected by forestry activities, they retain the natural representation of tree species and the natural way of regeneration through the disintegration of primeval forest formations. Of the forests, the largest area is occupied by beech forests.
There are also primeval forests in the territory of the Veľká Fatra National Park. They can be found in the territory of e.g. Rakytov, Skalná Alpa, Kornietová, Krížna, etc. In the rainforest, everything takes place in a closed integrated cycle. The dynamic development of tree components is superior in the development of the forest, but we distinguish more interconnected cycles in it. The cycle of the water cycle, the cycle of nutrition are connected with the cycle of conservation of energy and mass. The balance of these cycles is the reason why the forest can exist permanently even on very poor soils.
One of the distinguishing features of the primeval forest is the presence of a large amount of dead wood. More precisely, one should talk about the decaying wood of dead trees and woody plants and their parts. Many forest animals and more than half of the species of fungi growing in forests are directly bound to dead wood at various stages of decomposition.
Text: Bc. V. Šimková
Photo: archive of S-NPVF
