1 General characteristics of the southern coniferous forests of ukraine

Selection, grouping and data processing of mass bulk material from the data bank «Forest fund of Ukraine» of production association «Ukrderzhlisproect» as of 01.01.2011 in order to obtain the integrated characteristics of taxing structure of coniferous woodlands of Ukraine (Scots pine, Crimean pine, spruce, white fir). This research was made in Volyn, Vinnitsa, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Transcarpathian, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovograd, Lviv region, Odessa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv regions and Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The database sample contained 880847 sections, where the main wood species were pine, spruce and fir. Taxation characteristic of forest managements of National Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine was used to make description of pine and fir plantations. One of the disadvantages and this database is the lack of information of available forest plantations that belong to other landowners. In addition, the suitability of this information is that it is obtained by eye, which although is basic in production, but has some inaccuracies associated with the subjective assessment of the tax collector.

1.1 Forest valuation of artificial pine plantations of Ukraine

Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is the main forest-forming wood species within Ukraine. The area of ​​pine plantations is over 33% or 3130 thousand hectares. Pine forests are of great environmental significance, including water security, in particular water protection, water regulation, soil protection and anti-erosion. Plantations regulate surface drains, protect soil from erosion, and water sources from pollution, which is especially important on the sandy soils of Polissya. As a rather unsophisticated breed, Pine is often applicable for forestation in man-disturbed landscapes, cliffs and gorges on poor and eroded soils. The ability of pine to allocate a large number of phytoncides has ensured its wide use in recreational and sanitary health purposes. Significant number of health institutions are located in pine woodlands on the territory of Ukraine.

Pine plantations are important for the national economy, particularly construction, pine wood is suitable for the production of ore risers required in developing minerals, because of the tar that provide increased resistance of wood to decay and have one important feature – it creaks in case of increased load.

Based on their taxation characteristics analysis of artificial pine plantations was carried out in eight regions of Ukraine. Territorially these regions attributed to the Ukrainian Polissya (Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kiev, Sumy, Chernihiv, Lviv and Khmelnytsky). Nine main indicators characterize each plantation: planting area, average age, average height, and average diameter, yield class, type of site conditions, the relative completeness, standing timber per one ha of plantation and stand structure. After that, the data were analyzed using the graph–analytical method and, in the presence of gross errors, were removed from the calculations. Because of the operations, a verified database of artificial pine plantations of the Polissya was obtained containing 393678 entries. Quantitative parameters of distribution of the mentioned tree species within the administrative regions of the region are shown in Table. 1.1.

Table 1 .1