baumzaehlen - Primeval Forests & Their Trees

Buynyy Natural Monument, Adygea, Russia

Abies nordmanniana subsp. nordmanniana (Nordmann fir or Caucasian fir) has been claimed to reach 85 m height in the Western Caucasus World Heritage site¹. This is based on an old measurement or estimation from Buynyy Natural Monument; the details of the measurement are no longer known². According to this old data, A. nordmanniana in this reserve ”often” reaches 60–65 m.

Buynyy Natural Monument is small for a Russian nature reserve, only 14.8 km² from 820 to approx. 2000 m elevation. The reserve is a part of the Western Caucasus World Heritage site and was until 1954 a part of the Caucasus Nature Reserve.

It is claimed there has never been logging in the Natural Monument³. In reality, the entire Natural Monument is not untouched: old forestry roads and cut stumps can still be seen on lower slopes. Nevertheless, much of the reserve looks primeval. The forest type resembles the montane Fagus sylvatica (European beech) – Abies alba (European silver fir) – Picea abies (Norway spruce) forest of central and southern Europe. Perhaps the biggest difference is a dense evergreen shrub layer, up to 2 m tall, mostly composed by Rhododendron ponticum (pontic rhododendron), Prunus laurocerasus (cherry laurel) and Ilex colchica, in this order. Particularly R. ponticum together with steep slopes makes hiking difficult. From the dendrological perspective, another important difference is the lack of Picea. Thus, these forests are overwhelmingly dominated by only two tree species: A. nordmanniana and Fagus orientalis (oriental beech). A. nordmanniana has a narrower crown than A. alba, the tallest trees having particularly narrow crowns. The other tree species, too, are either the same as, or closely related to, the common species of central European montane forests, the most abundant species being Acer pseudoplatanus (sycamore maple), Acer platanoides (Norway maple), Ulmus glabra (wych elm), Tilia begoniifolia (Caucasian linden) and, along rivers, Alnus glutinosa subsp. barbata (black alder). Most tree species are easy to identify. Hedera helix (European ivy) grows abundantly on tree trunks and forest floor.

My 3 days measuring with a German–Russian group in 2018, using TruPulse 200X laser, resulted in 59.5 m as the maximum height of A. nordmanniana. The girth of this tree was 454 cm. Thus, we were very far from the claimed 85 m. Further, A. nordmanniana did not “often reach 60–65 m” but rather 50–55 m. We were able to explore only a part of the Natural Monument as the hiking was slow; thus, it is possible or even probable that there are slightly taller trees in the forest. It is also possible that taller trees were cut on lower slopes in the past. However, we consider 85 m entirely impossible: the difference between our measurements and the old data is more than 25 m! Even 70 m is unlikely. For the maximum height of A. nordmanniana, see also Caucasus Nature Reserve. The tallest Fagus orientalis we measured was 46.5 m (the record for a reliably measured F. sylvatica is 49.4 m ⁴). A record Acer platanoides tree was measured at 37.9 m. The forest is densely stocked: even 1800 m³/ha ³.

Reaching the Natural Monument needs a 10-km hike, over 500 m descent and fording one river. No hiking paths in the reserve.

References:

1       IUCN (1999): World Heritage Nomination - IUCN Technical Evaluation: Western Caucasus (Russian Federation).

2       Caucasus Nature Reserve, e-mail (2018).

3       http://www.zapoved.net

4       https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/fra/pyreneesatlantiques/larrau/14843_passerelledholart/39928/

Official site:

http://www.zapoved.net