FOREST FIRE AND NATURAL ACTION TO REMOVE COMBUSTIBLE MATERIALS IN FOREST ECOSYSTEMS

Анотація

It is shown that from 2714 to 7036 forest fires occurred annually in Ukraine from1990 to 2010; an area of 35.900 ha of forestlands was affected by fires, 23.970 ha of stands were lost, more than 2.460.000 m³ of forest products were destroyed and damaged. Fire resistance of forest stands, to a great extent, depends not only on the level of natural fire hazard of stands, but also on the presence on their territory of natural fuels (NF). The total stock of natural fuels in Ukraine is 126.88 million tons and their compaction under conditions of their processing into the pellets and taking into account possibilities and economic feasibility of harvesting natural fuels even at half wooded area, the mass of fuel pellets will be more than 6.3 million tons.