WWF Protests Against Extraction of Calamity Woods in the High Tatras

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) considers the extraction works of the calamity wood in Ticha Dolina Valley and Koprova Dolina Valley, which the State Lesy TANAP started on Wednesday, illegal. The WWF is challenging a study elaborated by Statna Ochrana Prirody (SOP SR) and Narodne Lesnicke Centrum (NLC), which justify the decision of Statne Lesy TANAP to process fallen trees following the devastating windstorm in the High Tatra mountains in November 2004. WWF representative in Slovakia, Juraj Vysoky, claims that this non-objective study was elaborated with the sole aim of enabling the processing of the fallen woods in the Ticha Dolina and Koprova Dolina Valleys, without judging its effect on the environment. Processing of fallen woods two years after the windstorm in the High Tatras will neither prevent nor restrict the negative impact of dangerous insects. "This is the least suitable solution for nature protection and forestry management," he said.
The WWF claims that the study was not elaborated according to the appropriate EU directive. That is why the WWF is demanding that State Lesy halt extraction works in the aforementioned valleys.