Forest regeneration is one of the most significant phenomena occurring in the life of the forest, ending up a vegetation cycle and creating a new stand at the same time. It is a process of renewal or regeneration of generations of stands instead of those exploited or damaged due to windfall or Ipidae attack.

Regeneration proves to be an indispensable chain of development, a permanent means of evolution of the arborescent vegetation that ensures the constancy of the forest in time and space.

The extension of the forest’s surface being under the management of the Forest Administration of Gheorgheni, as well as the ones outside the forest fund is carried out through the following operations: regeneration of the entire forest surface, upon which timber was harvested, by main product cutting; afforestation of forest lands lacking forest vegetation that have no other utility assigned by the management plan; ecological reconstruction of the fields affected by some degrading phenomenon.

Year by year the regeneration plans are in concordance with the final cuts, the legal obligation imposes that surfaces must be regenerated in maximum two years after the final cuts.

The Forest Administration of Gheorgheni provides technical and material (biological) support for forest regeneration and afforestation of degraded areas considered unsuitable for agricultural purposes.

Forest regeneration can be established by means of:

• natural regeneration: by natural seed dispersal, after regeneration fellings
• artificial regeneration: with seedlings from nurseries, that are planted on bare surfaces, resulting from final cutting, or on the ones with unsuccessful natural regeneration.

            Regeneration practices adopted by the Forest Administration of Gheorgheni encourage the sustainability of the forest by establishing and maintaining forest vegetation and by promoting the afforestation formulae and schemes.

Special attention was devoted to the ‘end composition’, that is to the methods of determining species in such a way as to make them suitable for the soil conditions and for the management objectives set. Consequently the resinous plants make up the majority (80%) of the planted seedlings  at the artificial regeneration.

Annualy an average of 76 hectares are being regenerated by the Forest Administration of Gheorgheni, out of which 18 hectares are natural regenerations and 58 hectares afforestation proper.

The table below shows the last few years’ accomplishments in forest regeneration:

             After being plated the seedlings must go through a difficult period when they have to adapt to the new environmental conditions, to a poorer soil than the one in the nursery, to a sometimes moderate rainfall, to competitive herbaceous and ligneous species (leading species – willow, trembling poplar, common hornbeam a.s.o.). Therefore following the plantations tending operations (loosening the soil around the seedlings, weeding herbaceous and ligneous species, round the seedlings or on the whole surface) are needed.

The annual inspection of regeneration is carried out in spring, a period when control surfaces are located, the percentage of seedling loss is defined and the operations necessary for the following year are set.