On 17th April, 2018 at the seat of the Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Sękocin Stary there was the III Steering Committee of LIFE+ ForBioSensing PL “Comprehensive monitoring of stand dynamics in Białowieża Forest supported with remote sensing techniques” aiming at summarizing work that has been hitherto done, showing results of analyses and presenting plans for consecutive years.

The meeting was opened by the Deputy Director for Administration, Dr Piotr Gołos, Eng., who welcomed all the guests warmly and thanked for the active participation in Steering Committee of LIFE+ ForBioSensing PL project. The Deputy Director stressed the importance of the Project which is carried out in such a unique research facility as the Białowieża Forest, having regard the long-term research of FRI carried out in this area. Then he gave the floor to the Project manager, Dr Krzysztof Stereńczak, Assoc. Prof. with an ask for further meeting conducting.

Dr Krzysztof Stereńczak, Assoc. Prof. introduced the quests with the agenda and asked them for an active participation and expressing their expectations according to the Project. After that he gave the floor to Dr Rafał Paluch, Assoc. Prof. – the field work coordinator in Białowieża, who gave a presentation about collected data from field works carried out in the framework of the Project. Then Dr Krzysztof Stereńczak, Assoc. Prof., presented preliminary results of the Project according to both field works and remote sensing analyses. The meeting was closed with a discussion about the conducted studies and their methodology. The ForBioSensing project members came across numerous questions in such an important moment concerning the condition of the Białowieża Forest.

During the meeting all the guests had a chance to familiarised themselves with the preliminary results of the Project presented with the use of posters created by the Project members. The posters included othophotomaps of the Białowieża Forest from aerial imagery collected on October, 2017 and March, 2018. The dynamics of spruce dieback in 2015-2017 in subareas (percentage-wise and m3/ha) and species composition of the Białowieża Forest in 2015 were also presented.

At the end of the meeting the Project manager once again assured all the Steering Committee members about openness for all suggestions and propositions in connection with the project realization, presented plans for the future and thanked all the guests for their participation.

Among all the quests there were: on behalf of Steering Committee Chairman, Prof. Jacek Hilszczański, Deputy Director for Administration – Dr Piotr Gołos, Eng., on behalf of Director of the Forestry Department, Ministry of the Environment, Dr Jacek Sagan – Zbigniew Wtulich, Head of the Forest Management, Geoinformatics and Economics Department, Warsaw School of Life Sciences in Warsaw – Prof. Sanisław Miścicki, Director of the Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences in Białowieża – Rafał Kowalczyk, Assoc. Prof., on behalf of Director of the Regional Directorate of National Forests (RDNF) in Białystok, Andrzej Józef Nowak, MEng., Deputy Director of RDFN – Piotr Karnasiewicz, Forest Manager of the Hajnówka Forest District – Mariusz Agiejczyk, Forest Manager of the Browsk Forest District – Robert Miszczak, Head of the Białowieża Commune – Grzegorz Kasprowicz, MSc., Chairman of the Polish Forest Association, Białystok Ward – Marek Masłowski, Programme Director of Greenpeace Poland in Warsaw – Robert Cyglicki, Editor of Las Polski – Jakub Słowik, representative of the Information Centre of the National Forests – Tomasz Esman.

Content and photos: Olga Jasińska