Historical abiotic damage to forests in the Moravian-Silesian Beskids (Czech Republic)

Abstract Historical sources provide evidence of the condition and damage to forests over time. Lesprojekt (The Forest Management Institute, which is a governmental institution under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic) evaluated data from records deposited in the national archives in three cycles of historical research (1966–67, 1976, 1982–83) conducted in the state forests (forest enterprise of the state forests). The processed data was critically evaluated and formed the foundation of a long term series (1875–2012) of windfalls and snow damage. The aim of this paper was to summarise the data pertaining to such enormous abiotic damage in the Moravian-Silesian Beskids (Outer Western Carpathians, Czech Republic), its temporality, frequency and intensity. A spatial analysis of snow calamities was conducted during the last disturbance episodes in the winters of 2005/2006 and in October 2009. The historical records showed that the most extensive disturbances occurred in 1916, when 600,000 m3 of wood was damaged in the monitored area. Some findings were discussed in relation to silvicultural interventions in the Moravian-Silesian Beskids. In the conclusion, some problems and limitations concerning the reliability of data obtained this way are indicated.