Conifers still clearly dominate the forests of the Pardubice Region, but their share is gradually shrinking in favour of deciduous trees. According to official statistics, conifers made up 77% of the region's forest stock in 2022, but that figure had dropped to 75.5% by last year. Over the same period, the share of deciduous trees rose from 23% to 24.5%.
Despite the decline, the region remains one of the country's leaders in terms of conifer share — ranking fifth among all Czech regions.
Since 2018, foresters have been forced to carry out large-scale logging of trees affected by bark beetles and other pests. However, since 2022 the volume of such sanitary felling has been decreasing. Last year it accounted for just 18.7% of the total timber harvested, with the bulk now coming from planned felling and other forestry management activities.
Last year, foresters planted 1,376 hectares of forest land across the region. Conifers accounted for 58.5% of the new plantings, deciduous species for 41.5%. Spruce, oak, beech and pine were the most commonly planted species.
At the same time, the scale of reforestation has been gradually shrinking: the figure peaked in recent years at 1,706 hectares in 2022.
Source: ekolist.cz