Urban forests

their immediate surroundings clean the air, mitigate noise, moderate temperature extremes, contribute to clean water, prevent flooding, provide citizens and visitors with space for recreation and other leisure activities, are a playground and classroom in nature, and increase biodiversity in the urban environment. They are also an important part of the circular green economy of cities, as they provide the natural material wood and other non-wood goods.

Forests that provide the cities inhabitants the numerous ecosystem services and influence their quality living environment are called urban forests. Many Slovenian cities have declared these forests as special purpose forests with special decrees, thereby committing to protect them from deforestation and to ensure the development of their social functions.

Photos: Urban forest Golovec (trails, visitors, totems, educational content)

In Slovenia, 16 cities or towns designated urban and suburban forests by decree, the total area of ​​these forests amounts to about 5,000 ha.

Urban forests are distinguished from other forests by a significantly increased number of visitors, which is why urban forests are equipped with recreational trails, entry points where information about the urban forest is displayed on boards, and other thematic points that increase the attractiveness of the forest for visitors. In recent years, the importance of forests for the implementation of educational activities has been growing significantly. Urban forests are increasingly visited by kindergartens and schools, which is why forest educational and thematic trails are also arranged in many forests. Slovenia Forest Service, as part of the implementation of forest pedagogy, annually organizes trips for kindergarten and school groups along these routes.

Figure: Urban forests in Slovenia

Management of urban forests follows the principles of close-to-nature, sustainable and multi-objective forest management that are generally applied in all forests. However, in urban forests, management is adapted to the social and ecological functions of forests. Forest management must consider and protect both forest visitors and forest stands. The interventions in forests are more careful, small-scaled, more frequent but of lesser intensity. The recreational and other trails are protected as much as possible when harvesting and skidding operations are taking place. Regular sanitary cut of diseased, dead or damaged trees along trails potentially dangerous for visitors is of outmost importance. It is important that urban forests are actively managed. This ensures their vitality and stability, which is crucial in the face of increasingly frequent natural disturbances, to which urban forests are even more susceptible due to harsher growing conditions.

With close-to-nature forest management in urban forests, we ensure a high level of biodiversity, which is even more valuable in an urban environment. We also take care of appropriate amounts of dead biomass, which is home to many species such as birds, fungi, lichens and the like. If conditions permit, smaller parts of urban forests, which are further away from the visited trails, can be left to natural development with the aim of conserving biodiversity.

Many urban forests are privately owned, so visitors must respect private property and forest etiquette rules, which visitors can usually find on information boards. Since it is more difficult to harmonize public and private interests in private forests, some municipalities are using the instrument of buying-off private forests and gradually increase public ownership of urban forests. When implementing measures in private forests, it is necessary to collaborate with forest owners and obtain their consent for the development of social functions in private forests.

Some cities have also adopted strategies for urban forests, with which they further strengthen awareness of the importance of urban forests, encourage the improvement of their conditions and purchase of urban forests, and give them an important place also in the context of land use planning. Urban forests are under significant pressure due to urbanization, the pressures to change the land use for urbanization is the strongest in the urban landscape. Therefore, degrees and strategies are important protections against deforestation of these forests.

In recent years, the coordination of forest use has become more demanding due to higher number of visitors but also due to the increasing number of different types of recreation and the implementation of (also illegal) activities in urban forests. That is why an adequate control is very important. It ensures that the restrictions and guidelines regarding the use and visit of urban forests are respected.

Photo: Urban forests Celje (educational content, tree house, directing boards / totems)