Title News After natural disasters in forests – simpler methods of removing the effects
Assessment
The Ministry of the Environment submitted for coordination the draft of the amendment of the measures for special protection and elimination of the effects of natural disasters in forests. The proposed changes would ensure a clearer and more efficient procedure for removing wood and removing damaged trees in the event of a natural disaster or when trees are attacked by pests.
The project details measures for special protection and elimination of the effects of natural disasters in forests in the event of a massive spread of dangerous tree pests and bark-boring typographers, providing measures for the removal of damaged wood, felling, and the use of aviation.
In cases of mass spread of the bark-borer typographer, the Directorate of Protected Areas should issue reasoned conclusions regarding forest cutting permits and notifications of the intention to cut down the forest for fir trees with bark-borer typographers developing under the bark no later than within 3 working days of receiving the request. Currently, coordination procedures with directorates of protected areas or territorial divisions of the Department of Cultural Heritage, although it is necessary to urgently apply forest sanitary protection measures due to mass violations of typographers by bark beetles, take up to 20 working days.
The draft stipulates that the Department of Environmental Protection will be obliged to carry out control of special measures for protection and elimination of the effects of natural disasters in forests and to organize unplanned inspections at least once a week, to apply administrative responsibility to forest managers, owners and users for non-fulfillment of the requirements set out in the mandatory order.
It is also proposed to establish special measures for protection and elimination of the consequences of natural disasters in forests, which will have to be applied by operators of the electricity transmission system and operators of electricity distribution networks in the event of a massive spread of pests of tree trunks in the protection zones of electric overhead lines and beyond.
In the current legal regulation, only general measures of special protection and removal of the effects of natural disasters in forests are established. They do not ensure an effective response to the massive spread of dangerous forest pests pine sawfly and typographer bark beetle, nor do they provide for the measures to be taken by electricity transmission system operators and electricity distribution network operators.
Comments and proposals for changes to measures for special protection and elimination of the effects of natural disasters in forests can be submitted until August 25. In the Information System of Legal Acts (TAIS).
