The Ground Vegetation Management of Wood - Pastures in Romania – In Sights in the Past for Conservation Management in the Future

Abstract

Öllerer: The ground vegetation management of wood pastures in Romania-Insights in the past for conservation management in the future -549 - Abstract. Wood-pastures are important elements of the European natural and cultural heritage, fulfilling several ecological functions at local and landscape scale (e.g. providing a valuable habitat for a wide range of species, as well as a link to traditional landscape management practices), but are nowadays in decline especially due to land-use changes begun in the 20th century and lack of legal recognition. Woodpastures are relatively common in Southern Transylvania (Romania), and, contrary to the majority of similar habitats from Europe, are not threatened mainly by abandonment and subsequent secondary succession, but by modifications in the traditional management regime. Using a wide range of historical documents, this paper presents an overview of the traditional and the current management of the ground vegetation in wood-pastures. These habitats were traditionally grazed mainly by cattle and pigs, sheep being often subject to regulations. Regular mowing was also practiced. Nowadays sheep are the main grazers and mowing has practically disappeared, while the incidences of burning are increasing. Analyzing the differences between the present situation and those described in old publications provides valuable information for conservation management and potential restoration of similar, degraded habitats throughout Europe.

Seeing the oakscape beyond the forest: a landscape approach to the oak regeneration in Europe

“…Transylvanian wood-pastures are probably the best functioning examples (Hartel et al 2013;Ö llerer 2014) Unused or extensively used grasslands…”

“…The recent shift from the rural economy based on the multiple use of variegated landscapes to intensive monocropping, including the sharp separation between open land and forests, leads to disappearance of such 'oak-friendly' habitats. The exception are oak wood-pastures, still playing an important role in local economies in South-Carpathian region (Hartel et al 2013;Ö llerer 2014). These areas of outstanding ecological value consist of grasslands with shrubs, scattered solitary trees, distinct clusters of trees with wide though not interacting canopies, and of groves, where trees interact and compete with each other (Hartel and Plieninger 2014; Table 3).…”

Environmental determinants of the old oaks in wood-pastures from a changing traditional social–ecological system of Romania

“…Field surveys were carried out primarily in 2009 and 2010 and then in 2013-2015, within a series of projects aiming to provide the first comprehensive step toward understanding the distribution, status, and ecological value of wood-pastures from Southern Transylvania (see e.g., Hartel et al , 2014bÖ llerer 2014;Roellig et al 2014). Woodpastures were identified using the satellite images provided by Google Earth, orthophotos, and our personal experiences in the region (four of the authors have in-depth knowledge of this cultural region).…”

The history and natural regeneration of a secondary oak-beech woodland on a former wood-pasture in Hungary

“…Management practices also included burning. The importance and role of fire in wood-pasture and grassland management in Central and East Europe has only recently been recognized [52,53]. This type of nonforest use is closely related to traditional land-use based on traditional ecological knowledge [16,54] conscious tree management of silvopastoral systems comes from the observation that the scattered seed-trees were all the same age, and thus dated from the time that the area was transformed into a pasture [55].…”