Przegląd Geograficzny (2025) vol. 97, iss. 1
Condition and formation regularities characterising forest roads in Poland’s Tatra National Park and its surroundings
Przegląd Geograficzny (2025) vol. 97, iss. 1, pp. 27-47 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.1.2
Abstract
Contemporary anthropogenic transformations in Poland’s Tatra National Park are mainly a reflection of steadily-increasing tourist traffic. Observed transformations of relief away from tourist trails mainly coincide with the Forest Community of 8 Entitled Villages headquartered in Witów, and more precisely the timber skidding work that it engages in.
Our research sought to determine if there were any regularities to emerging transformations of the terrain as a reflection of forest management in mountain areas. Relevant analysis proceeded on the assumption that the formation of a forest road is dependent on the geological substrate across which it is routed, as well as on location in relation to such main elements of relief as slope, ridge and valley.
Our main method of study was geomorphological mapping based on a field form (Fig. 1), as well as GPS (Garmin 64s). Fieldwork encompassed the western part of the Tatra National Park, meaning the Chochołowska and Lejowa Valleys, as well as Jaroniec, with the focus being on both roads in use and those in areas where forestry work had ceased. For comparison, roads beyond the TNP boundaries were also made subject to analysis – specifically in the Polana Molkówka area. All of the forest roads studied were located within the aforesaid Forest Community of 8 Entitled Villages headquartered in Witów. The field work involved each described roads being divided into sections. The criteria for their separation involved numbers of cuts occurring in the road bed, as well as significant changes of slope.
In the sections studied, flushing was found to be the most important of the natural morphogenetic processes. However, it is difficult to determine the separate roles of flushing and ongoing forestry works in achieving transformations of landforms, as road-dredging processes bring together natural processes on the one hand and anthropopressure on the other. A significant influence in slope modelling through water erosion is exerted by heavy rainfall events occurring mainly during the pluvial season. Erosion cuts very often develop in the course of intense precipitation events, at least where permanent vegetation cover is lacking, as along forest roads and hiking trails.
Of all the factors responding to the development of erosion forms within a road, it is slope of the terrain and position in regard to slopes that play the most important role. The coexistence of these two elements within roads with unpaved ground, especially when the slope exceeds 10°, leads to water erosion of increased intensity, and hence to a deepening of road cuts and indentations.
As regards the scale of the transformation within roads being dependent on geological structure, the type of rock present in the subsoil is shown to be important to the process by which a road cut is deepened – when the weathered layer is completely elevated or cut. Within a substratum of low resistance (like shale or peat), further deepening of the road is to be observed in relation to both water run-off and timber transport. In turn, where roads are on resistant dolomites, it is diffuse water run-off and lifting of the weathered layer from the adjacent area and widening of the degraded zone that prove to be dominant. On the other hand, along most sections it is typical for type and fraction of weathering to be the factor most determining the development of cuts and road cuts.
If the intensity with which landform disturbances arise along forest roads is to be limited, it is vital for such roads to be designed correctly, with treatments applied to preserve the surface both during the period of road use and after. Slope, position in relation to a slope, geological type of substratum, weathering, and the presence of natural springs and hence a possibility of groundwater flow being intercepted should all be taken account of at the design stage of any new road. The analysed forest roads of the Chochołowska, Lejowa and Jarońca Valleys – located within the Tatra National Park or just adjacent to it near Molkówka – are very much characterised by insufficient protection against erosion, with this being true of both sections in use, and places in which skidding and timber transport have been completed.
Keywords: forest management, human impact, forest roads, transformation of relief, Tatra Mountains, Poland
[a.wojtaszowicz@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. S. Leszczyckiego PAN
[joanna.fidelus‑orzechowska@up.krakow.pl], Uniwersytet Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie, Instytut Biologii i Nauk o Ziemi
Citation
APA: Wojtaszowicz, A., & Fidelus-Orzechowska, J. (2025). Stan i prawidłowości wykształcenia dróg leśnych w Tatrzańskim Parku Narodowym i jego otoczeniu. Przegląd Geograficzny, 97(1), 27-47. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.1.2
MLA: Wojtaszowicz, Agnieszka and Fidelus-Orzechowska, Joanna. "Stan i prawidłowości wykształcenia dróg leśnych w Tatrzańskim Parku Narodowym i jego otoczeniu". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 97, no. 1, 2025, pp. 27-47. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.1.2
Chicago: Wojtaszowicz, Agnieszka and Fidelus-Orzechowska, Joanna. "Stan i prawidłowości wykształcenia dróg leśnych w Tatrzańskim Parku Narodowym i jego otoczeniu". Przegląd Geograficzny 97, no. 1 (2025): 27-47. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.1.2
Harvard: Wojtaszowicz, A., & Fidelus-Orzechowska, J. 2025. "Stan i prawidłowości wykształcenia dróg leśnych w Tatrzańskim Parku Narodowym i jego otoczeniu". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 27-47. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.1.2