Organised by Libby Urquhart of ARCH as part of Nature Exchange 3 Project

Hosted by Miroslav Knezo, Director of Krajina
Participants:
  • Abbie Patterson – The National Trust for Scotland
  • Adam Samson – Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority
  • Fiona Chalmers – Cairngorms National Park Authority
  • Fran Pothecary - Cairngorms National Park Authority
  • Glyn Jones – Balmoral Estate
  • Iain Bogle – Galgael Trust
  • Tarja Wilson – Forest of Bowland AONB

Tuesday 2nd June
Robin Rigg: Slovak Wildlife Society (SWS) www.slovakwildlifesociety.org
Walk about Bears and Wolves at Liptovsky Hradrok, Low Tatras

The SWS run several projects; one is called BEARS (www.medvede.sk). BEARS stand for “Bear Education Awareness and Research in Slovakia” and this project is largely about educating Slovakians on how to live in harmony with bears and includes some research and awareness on wolves.
By 1933 the bear population had dropped to less than 30 and the hunters agreed to a complete ban on hunting bears. Since then the bear population has risen to about 800, with most living in the mountains of northern and central Slovakia. In 1960 hunting was reintroduced but with quotas to a maximum of around 10% of the bear population. Hunting is now restricted to bear weight of max 100kg in order to prevent trophy hunting for the biggest and best males.
Today bear hunting is carried out by professional hunters and some of these are commercial ventures who take clients out to shoot a bear. Although some clients are German and Austrian approximately half are wealthy Slovakians, given that the price to be paid for each bear shot is £30 per kg, this could cost up to £3000 per bear.
The control of this activity is authorised by the National Park or the Nature Conservation Authority who; authorise permits, agree and check proposed baiting sites, and inspect the kill to ensure that the rules are complied with.
There are some Nature Conservationists and members of the public who think that there should be no hunting of bears. However, the hunters argue that by hunting helps manage the bear population and to alleviate potential conflict, such as when young bears come close to habitation looking for food or kill domestic stock. The SWS have carried out research on bear populations and they support the hunting and the current quota system as a way of sustainably managing and maintaining a healthy population. The SWS believe that habitat change threatens European brown bears more than hunting.
The educational work of the project involves informing people of why feeding bears is not a good idea and how important securing refuse is. SWS have been making bear proof bins based on a Canadian model for hotels and campsites to use to secure their refuse. The use of electric fencing is also encouraged to protect farms, beehives, refuse containers, food stores and campsites.
One aspect of the Wolf Project is about reintroducing traditional methods for protecting sheep on the hill by using trained Livestock Guarding Dogs. Sheep are hefted rather than penned using guard dogs on a chain. This five year project was funded through the EU and the Born Free foundation. The dogs are introduced to the flock, ideally when they are 7 to 8 weeks old, and live with the flock in the pastures. The dogs develop strong social bonds and grow up to protect their 'relations'. After five years the comparison between the loss of livestock were lower using the trained dogs living with the sheep than with the flocks that did not have any guard dogs.
Wolves are considered more mobile and successful breeders and their population is difficult to assess therefore, there is no quota on hunting. An open season exists on wolves between 1st November to the 1st of January.
Lessons & parallels
Robin Rigg, our guide from the SWS, informed us that he had initially become involved with SWS through his research work on bears. Currently much of his work is more people related. He spends much of his time educating people about bears and wolves, in the hope that this may reduce human and bear/wolf conflict. In conjunction with the National Park rangers, he organised a series of summer camps for local school children where the children had the opportunity to take part in various bear related environmental activities. This recognition that reducing bear/human conflict is largely an educational issue may have strong parallels to reduce predator/human conflict in Scotland. For example, conflicts between birds of prey and humans and between Scottish wild cats and humans. Running similar public awareness campaigns back in Scotland may also prove worthwhile, particularly if young people are involved. Some of this is already starting to happen, for example ‘The Highland Tiger’ campaign.
On the section of path that we walked we saw numerous bear signs, for example, turned over logs, bear droppings, grubbed up ants nests and predated deer. It was interesting to speculate what ecological functions these activities might have, all of which are now completely missing from Scottish ecosystems?
Wednesday 3rd June
Guide: Miroslav Knezo, Director of Krajina
Walk up the Sucha Bela limestone gorge in “Slovensky Raj” (Slovak Paradise)
This gorgeous region, which quite deservedly has been recognised and protected as a national park, is indeed a paradise for visitors. There can be few other places where it is possible to encounter within such a small area such an enchantingly varied landscape such as meadows, chasms, canyons, gorges, plateaux, caves and waterfalls. Slovensky raj (Slovak Paradise) is an area of exceptional natural beauty and of rare flora and fauna. Its elevation is not particularly high (500 - 1,700 m) but negotiating the ravines along the walking trails is relatively demanding and a very popular tourist activity. (Excerpt from www.slovenskyraj.info )
This was a visit to a natural tourist attraction, an area of limestone gorges rising up to a ridge line of about 900m in the Lower Tatra area. The gorges are promoted as a tourist destination and supported by a network of way-marked paths, (including ladders and chains on the steeper sections); a car park and an entrance “village” consisting of a ticket booth, a couple of shops and a bar and a campsite. An entrance fee of 1.50Euros per person was charged, for the purposes of raising money for maintaining the infrastructure, in particular the walkways and ladders. The gorges are walked in one direction only, upwards for safety reasons.
The gorges are primarily a summer visit attraction but in the winter attract ice climbers to the steep walls and gulley’s of the canyons. Apart from the obvious polishing of the limestone bedrock, the gorge itself was pretty unspoilt and supported a range of calcareous and shade loving flora.
The first tourist exploration was done in 1930 by a man called Roth who later enlisted the help of the local Mountain Rescue Team to establish the technical aspects of the route. The way-marking of the routes is managed by the Slovak Hiking Association whose volunteers take responsibility for the upkeep and painting of the way markers, as in the ‘European tradition’, these consist of coloured strips on rocks, or trees as opposed to specially constructed posts. The way-marking is done so that there is a maximum of 100m between way-markers and the aim is to ensure that you can always see two markers. Where two markers are very close together, as in marking a doorway, it tends to indicate a change in direction or a big track merging onto a smaller one as we found having made an error later in the trip!
The walk was good but the infrastructure is seriously showing it s age and there was little evidence of recent work on the route we did. Having said that, the other gorge (our first choice) was closed due to refurbishment. Wood is the choice of construction for access infrastructure (including path surfaces), being so plentiful and cheap, although the somewhat more brutal concrete and steel are fairly ubiquitous in relation to bus shelters, map boards and interpretation panels: a legacy of the communist era when function lorded over form. Due to the use of wood as a path surface and to define the line of the path, the battle to maintain is a constant one as wood does not last long in such damp and humid conditions. In addition the force of water and ice in the gorge in the winter clearly takes its toll. Indeed the boardwalks were often so slippery that it was necessary and more pleasant to walk round them, thus exacerbating any erosion. On the one hand, the use of wood is sustainable because it is the most immediately available source of construction material; on the other hand it takes a lot of work to keep it in any fit state.
This latter raise a point of discussion for the group who felt that in the UK the standard of infrastructure would definitely not meet UK H&S standards, nor was of a quality that would be promoted by the NTS, National Parks or other public land managers. However it is clear that the expectations of both the Slovak visitor and the Slovak NP management are different to ours, as Slovensky Raj is a massively popular and well used outdoor experience, and a popular destination for end of term summer school trips.
The temporal and spatial zoning and way-marking of the routes worked very well, allowing many visitors to take part in different activities, safely within a small area, where active land management was taking place with little apparent conflict. Unfortunately, this type of zoning is now impossible in Scotland because of access legislation.
It will be interesting to see whether the standard of the access infrastructure has to be upgraded over the coming years!

Thursday 4th June
Dr Peter Fleischer, Forest Researcher with The High Tatras NP. Looked at windstorm damage and discuss: environmental event, ensuing problems and mitigation factors.
Summary
The NP covers an area of 738km² which is approximately 50% owned by the state and the remaining 50% in private ownership, mostly concentrated on the lower slopes where there is some agriculture for the people who live there. It was nationalised as an NP in 1942. The NP is mostly in forestry and is not commercially worked though there are commercial outlets within the NP such as winter and summer sports such as skiing and walking.
Environmental Dilemma
Over time periods from 1915 there have been recorded windstorms which have ‘destroyed’ areas of forest and this damage has in the past naturally healed itself. However, the storm of 2006 was markedly more devastating with a wind-speed of 170km and damaged an area covering 12,000ha. This damage and its recovery have been impacted by several factors but two of the main issues are: 1) change in climatic conditions 2) infestation of Elateridae sp (bark beetle).
Climatic conditions are getting warmer and as a result this is allowing pest species such as bark beetle to survive and remain longer in the higher ground. Cooler conditions prevented this from happening in the past and now with warmer conditions, it is allowing the beetle to continue its destructive course over a more prolonged season. The beetle is attacking the trees that have survived the storm by laying its eggs in the bark and larvae when hatched tunnel between the bark and trunk thus killing the tree.
 
Discussion
Climatic conditions cannot be altered and we have to work around problems created by ‘Global Warming’ and we also have to accept that that there are in some cases no current answers to these dilemmas. However, by setting out a programme of what data should be collected, and have a good robust rationale, can give dilemmas such as this and edge when in time answers can/may be found. A good example of this is that in the UK we suffer from grey squirrel out-competing native red squirrel for habitat and food resources. There is no answer to this dilemma other than collecting data and some control measures which basically only ‘tickles’ around the edge of the problem. Long term, there is no answer but only a hope that perhaps contraceptive immunisation treatment for female greys will slow down the productive rate of greys therefore overall lowering the grey population to help save red squirrels. Until this is tested, which will take years and lots of money, we can collect data which will allow us to measure any such future applied strategies such as immunisation when, and if it takes place.
However, the NP by Forestry Research have a good programme of data collection where there are several supporting monitoring tasks taking place, looking at: a) weather b) CO² levels in the soil c) measuring soil movement, and d) tree regeneration.
One point made about spraying to protect trees by killing the ‘bark beetle’ seemed to be steeped with local politics and was dismissed by Peter. Woodpeckers are a natural predator of the beetle but with few trees left standing and woodpeckers being exposed in open ground and not exactly their habitat, they are no longer in the windblow area to act as a biological answer. Perhaps in time when more trees regenerate and woodpeckers move back into this area may bring about a balance by controlling the bark beetle.
The consensus of opinion from the group and the Peter is that the problem will sort itself out in time and perhaps a none-intervention policy is perhaps the best? This has merits in that it is an opportunity to research such an environmental impact on the forest along with associated flora and fauna and add to scientific knowledge. However, on the other hand one could argue that other species may be lost without intervention which is what most conservationists in the UK would perhaps say?
On the brighter side, catastrophic events such as those witnessed at the High Tatras NP may in the long-term prove healthy and natural to taiga/boreal forests. The natural regeneration that was taking place looked excellent. Would similar catastrophic events to Scottish Pinewoods also prove beneficial in the long-term? At least in the Tatras there was a research station dedicated to monitoring the impact of these events where for example The Cairngorms National Park has none!
Dr Peter Fleischer downloading weather data. Tatras National Park.

Friday 5th June
Visit to 'Riaba skala' which translates as Grouse Cliff in Poloniny National Park plus session with Samuel, head forester.
Grouse Cliff is so named because the layers of stone outcrop contrast with the darker, green vegetation thus resembling the markings on the breast feathers of Red Grouse. Unfortunately, on our walk only brief glimpses of the cliff were possible due to cloud blowing through. The weather conditions were not conducive to appreciating the forest or the wildlife that it contains. The Stuzica wild forest is a significant proportion of the Poloniny NP, and includes large areas of beech forest up to the Ukrainian/Polish border. One of the highlights was spotting a blue slug Bielzia coerulans, an endemic to the Carpathian Mountains and the much more widely distributed Fire Salamander Salamandra salamandra.
After the walk and some time to dry out and warm up again it was time to speak with Samuel, the head forester (who serves a very, very nice cup of Carpathian tea)!
The area had been reserved for the Communist hierarchy after the invasion in 1948 for hunting and therefore was not subject to any state intervention or intensive management. The last clear felling of timber occurred in 1939 by the Hungarians after they invaded Slovakia. The area is part of a Unesco World Heritage designation for its Beech woods which stretches from the east end of the Tatras to the Ukrainian border. It is also part of a Biosphere Reserve that straddles the Slovak, Polish and Ukrainian border.

An area of 6,000 Hectares is managed by two managers and four foresters and yields 16,000 m³ of timber each year. There is a ten year forestry plan that is strictly adhered to. It lists and maps all the areas that are to be planted, extracted over the 10 year life of the plan. By following the plan allows annual income to be calculated for maintenance of equipment and paying wages to the foresters.

In the Biosphere area timber is extracted in strips as no clear felling is permitted. The strips are no wider than twice the height of the trees but can be any length. Felling of adjacent strips cannot take place until regeneration in the newly felled area is well established, normally 6 to 8 years after felling. An area of 82% is naturally regenerated whilst throughout the company, including the area outside the Biosphere, this falls to 55%. The felling rotation is between 60 to 80 years and the timber is sold as standing timber at auction. Felling is undertaken either by the foresters or local contractors, all whom live within the valley. Due to the strict designations of the area there is a limit to the equipment and the chemicals used i.e. vegetable based oils rather than mineral based oils for chain saw.
The agricultural land is managed in conjunction with the forestry and this appears to be an anomaly left over from the Communist days. Therefore the meadows are regularly mown just to prevent succession to woodland. Like the forestry sector, agriculture is highly regulated and only a very limited number of chemicals are permitted and the use of artificial fertilisers is forbidden.
A number of points seemed to come out of this discussion:
  • The way that the ten year plan was so strictly adhered to, and that there appeared to be no link between the forestry department and what the timber was sold for. The timber sale follow the ten year plan and hopefully generate income to cover costs but no effort appears to be made to search out markets that might provide higher returns.
  • The link between agriculture and forestry appears to be quite close unlike the UK although there are now small scale trials and investigations into managing woods and pasture as one unit.
  • The high percentage of natural regeneration used within the area: it would be interesting to compare this figure with that of areas such as the Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park. Although starting from very different points i.e. at present 80% of the tree cover in the LLtTNP is plantation of predominately foreign species in a landscape that is only 25% wooded (Scotland’s tree cover is even less at about 10%) whereas the Slovaks have 43% tree cover and large areas of near pure native woodland, it should be possible to learn lessons regarding felling and regeneration at the landscape scale.
  • Disappointingly the Head Forester informed us that his only objective was to make money from the forest. The onus on the foresters was to generate enough income to sustain their livelihoods and management. It was difficult to ascertain whether rare species or the important natural heritage designations affected his management in any way. Hopefully, this may be because of the language barrier or too much Carpathian tea!
  • The style of management, felling narrow strips and the fast rate of natural regeneration that occurs in this area means that the forests, when viewed from a distance, appear very natural and continuous. However, when one is walking in the forests the level of management becomes apparent. The forests are intersected by a dense network of forest tracks (some very badly eroded) and the felling strips are more apparent.
Saturday 6th June
Peter Piencak: Slovak Bird ringers; looking at the bird life in the vicinity of Lake Domasa.
Summary
The morning consisted of a session of mist netting and ringing birds plus a visit to nearby the river to look at the bird life found there. This was followed in the afternoon by a visit to a Heronry (the third largest in Slovakia) consisting of sixty nests and a brief bird-watching session at the point at which the river enters the lake.
The format for bird ringing is fairly universal throughout Europe with data being pooled amongst countries. The birds are ringed to provide information on their distribution and migration. The ring contains contact details and therefore if the birds are caught elsewhere or are found dead it is possible to report the bird’s details to the original ringer. The idea behind this being to build up a picture of bird movements throughout Europe and indeed the world. Birds ringed in Slovakia had turned up as far afield as, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and other parts of Europe.
Due to the high rain fall it was not possible to place the nets in the area hoped for but the alternative site yielded a number of small passerines: Great Tit Parus major; Robin Erithacus rubecula; Dunnock Prunella modularis; Tree Sparrow Passer montanus; Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca; Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla and Garden Warbler Sylvia borin. All were ringed except for Tree Sparrow due to this being a sedentary species. The mist nets have to be checked every hour in good weather and every half hour in bad weather to prevent harm to species caught.
The quick visit to the river, between ringing sessions produced some of the commoner species and also Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius. The most unusual species heard and seen briefly was a Golden Oriole Oriolus oriolus.
Heronries are interesting places as these apparently cumbersome birds gather in the trees to nest and you can watch the comings and goings and the squabbles. A kingfisher was spotted beside the river near the heronry. Two further stops saw the addition of Great White Egret Egretta alba; Raven Corvus corax; Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus; Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo and most unusually from a British bird watching point of view, River Warbler Locustella fluviatilis.
Removing bird from mist net Lesser Whitethroat in the hand

Discussion
The lay out of the day’s activities seems to be fine but the reality is that it didn’t work well. There needs to be some thought as to what is to be achieved from this day and who the target audience is.
  1. If bird ringers are the audience then I feel that they would be more interested in ringing species that they might not normally see at home i.e. Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina, Ural Owl Strix uralensis.
  2. If it’s aimed at bird-watchers, then there are a few ideas that may improve the day. Let the group be involved in the whole process i.e. going out reconnoitring a site, setting up the nets and observing the ringing process. Also the same as with 1: choosing a site with species that the group are unlikely to see at home. Visiting a heronry is always entertaining but this needs to be followed up by a visit to a site where it is possible to see a range of birds not normally seen by the group.
  3. If the day is aimed at generalists then there needs to be a faster pace and the birds need to be either showy and/or big to keep them interested?

There may be a cultural difference in that British bird-watchers are now used to being spoiled, with large cosy viewing centres, a network of paths leading to well appointed hides with all the birds easy to view. To attract birdwatchers to Slovakia a trip needs to concentrate on its specialities: e.g., all 10 species of European woodpecker (including 2 real rarities and 1 flamboyant species); 4 rarer species of owl including one that’s at the extreme south western edge of its range; many types of raptor including 1 rare eagle species plus a plethora of “wee” birds that are not seen regularly if at all in the UK?
As this was the first attempt it may be unfair to criticise it so heavily, though this is in a positive and constructive way, there needs to be much more research into what the “customer” wants rather than trying to fit the people into what you have to hand.
This confirmed my feelings regarding how little benefit can be gained from ringing birds. However, unless this is done as some part of a specific monitoring programme where all EU countries collate and publish their data and specific outcomes from the analyses can be gained and used for the benefit of the species, it seems more ‘hobbyish’ rather than actual scientific.


Sunday 7th June

Visit to Topola village (including wooden church) and walk in Poloniny National Park.
Church guide: Miroslav Knezo
Poloniny National Park (29,805 ha) lies in the extreme east of Slovakia and borders Poland and the Ukraine. Includes the Ulic(Ska) valley which is steeped in traditions, culture and unspoiled countryside. There are only 9 small villages within the national park (5/6 others were relocated with the creation of a large reservoir). We stayed at the only hotel in the area at Stakcin, a large village on the outside western edge of the park. These mountain villages continue to grow their own produce, cut hay off herb-rich meadows and graze with low numbers of livestock.
We found throughout our visit that the majority of Slovakians in villages, towns and cities continue to cultivate their own produce: the size of some of the allotments was beyond our comprehension and immaculately maintained. Many Slovakians also continue to pick wild fruits and mushrooms.
Eastern Slovakia is noted for the number of wooden churches. We had the benefit of Miro's expertise when we visited the awe-inspiring Greek Catholic wooden church in Topola village. Built about 1337 it was added to the 100 most endangered sites list of World Monuments Fund (WMF) in 2003. A young lady from the village opened the church up especially for us and helped to guide us around. The church itself is surrounded by a stunning herb rich graveyard.
A few walking and cycle trails take you through the Poloniny NP , right through the wild forest, through the mountain villages and a couple of the trails take up over the tops and across the border into Poland/Ukraine. We planned to walk along one of these trails between Topola over the ridge into the next village. Only made it half way when we realised we had lost the trail having missed gateway way-marking off the forest track. We turned back and returned to Topola instead and spent some leisurely time taking in the butterflies and snakes as some of us had a nap out in the sun!