The success of forest policy, research, and education depends on full consideration of the needs and knowledge of each other. In parallel to this approach, the goals of the present study were to express the role and content of aspects of forest education and research in the context of documents of the current Turkish forest policy. In addition, this paper aimed to reveal the viewpoints of senior managers of the Turkish forestry organisation in terms of policy-organisation and research-education relationships. Content analysis was used in terms of analysing the relevant components of forest policy documents and interviews with senior managers of the national forestry organisation, allowed a more in-depth analysis. The findings showed that research and universities are the most important factors in the perspective of National forestry documents. Despite this result, meetings with senior managers of the forestry organisation proved that no real institutional cooperation existed between the organisational units and the faculty of forestry colleges and universities. Creating work groups and holding workshops are several current efforts in terms of strengthening the relationship among policy, research, and education in Turkish forestry. However, some further critical actions regarding strengthening communication, collaboration and institutional relations, developing participatory approaches, and reducing bureaucracy are needed.

Keywords: forest policy, forest administration, forestry education, institutional relations, content analysis, interviews.

   Today red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) are widely distributed, and are an economically important game species in Latvia and Europe. In Latvia the species went extinct around the 10^th century, and was absent for approximately 1000 years, until their reintroduction in the 19^th century. This study uses literature and official statistics to describe changes to population size, distribution and harvest from the establishment of the wild population in the beginning of the 20^th century until today. 100 red deer individuals from 3 regions, corresponding with the historical distribution of red deer in Latvia, were analyzed using 14 nuclear microsatellite markers.

   Red deer population has undergone various changes since initial introductions. They have gone from small, isolated populations in the south and west of Latvia, to covering roughly 90% of all territory, and harvest has increased over time to the current maximum today of approximately 10000 per annum. The primary driver in range expansion was the translocations that took place from the west to the north- east regions between 1963 and 1988.

   The analysed individuals were divided into regions based upon the historical information about deer populations in Latvia. We found no evidence of genetic differentiation between the regions, and the patterns of genetic diversity were also similar between the analysed regions. The results presented in this study indicate that currently there do not seem to be reproductive barriers between these populations. However, due to selective hunting, hybridisation and/or growth to infrastructure continued monitoring in the future is imperative. Genetic monitoring will help to detect changes in populations and to assist in the development of management strategies.

Keywords: red deer, reintroduction, population distribution, harvest, genetic structure

   The purpose of this research was to assess the damage caused by the extraction of wood harvested with chain-saws in thinnings in pine tree-stands, 35, 52 and 69 years old. Two methods of wood extraction were applied, in one case the wood was dragged with an agricultural tractor or a horse, and in the other case wood was extracted with a 10-ton forwarder. The investigations were conducted in Oborniki Forest District in western Poland. The horse and tractor skidding were carried out in variants with strip-roads or without them, while the extraction of wood with the forwarder was on strip-roads only. The distance between the strip-roads was 30 m, while their widths were about 1.5 m for the horse, 2.5 m for the agricultural tractor and 3.5 m for the forwarder. The analysis presented in the paper focused on the shares of the damaged trees and differences in the numbers and frequencies of wounds in damage classes, related to the technology applied. The damage was divided into classes according to three criteria: depth (1-bark, 2-phloem, 3-wood), the wound place (stem, root crown, roots), and the damage causing factor (machine/horse, the wood/payload). The damage on trees in all the damage classes was statistically more significant in technologies with wood skidding than in technologies with wood forwarding, whereas the damage to the phloem was more frequent in the technology with the forwarder (no class 3 damage to the wood was observed). When the wood was skidded with the horse or the tractor, the wounds to the root crowns were statistically more frequent, while during the forwarding the damage to the stems dominated. As to the factor causing the damage, in the case of the forwarding operation, the machine was the main cause; while in the case of wood skidding the damage was usually caused by the wood (payload).

Keywords: thinning, skidding, damage, horse, agricultural tractor, forwarder.

Tree bark represents an important but rather poorly investigated component of coarse woody debris (CWD). We applied the component integration method to partition CO₂ flux from the surface of CWD into tree bark respiration and exposed wood surface respiration. Twelve large fragments of spruce (Picea abies (L). Karst), birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh and B. pendula Roth), and aspen (Populus tremula L.) logs at various times since tree death (TTD) were collected in middle taiga old-growth forest and transported to the laboratory. CO₂ fluxes were measured by a closed chamber method using a portable infrared gas analyser. During the first hours after the removal of bark from the logs, we observed a pronounced increase in CO₂ fluxes (i.e. a respiration burst) from the exposed wood surface and cutaway bark. The TTD had an important influence on the time required for stabilization of CO₂ emission rates from the tree bark and exposed wood surface. The mean rate of CO₂ flux from undisturbed surfaces of log fragments (R_{log surface}) varied from 23 ± 1 to 45 ± 2 mg С m^-2 h^-1, depending on the TTD. The bark respiration rate was significantly lower than the respiration rate of exposed wood. Tree bark of fresh logs (i.e. 0–1 y TTD) contributed a larger portion (40%) to the total CO₂ flux from CWD than tree bark of slightly and moderately decayed logs (15–16%). We suggest using this methodological approach for partitioning CO₂ fluxes from fresh and moderately decomposed CWD in both field and laboratory studies.

Keywords: deadwood; middle taiga; decay, carbon, tree bark, wood, respiration.