On Saturday, the 4^th of July 2015, prof. dr. Davorin Kajba in Croatia introduced us to Darko Trgovac, director of Forestry enterprise Čazma of Hrvatske Šume. Together, they presented us the seed orchards of pedunculate oak, narrow leaf ash and the elm conservation orchard near Čazma. We discussed selection of plus trees for the seed orchard, pruning and the production value of seed orchards. We discussed pests and diseases threatening forest genetic resources and the need for ex situ conservation. During the visit to the oak and hornbeam forest in forest management unit Česma near Čazma, prof. Kajba presented us the criteria for selection of oak plus trees.

We concluded the transect drive with a visit to the Slovenian forest genetic monitoring plot for beech near Dvor in Slovenia. Domen Finžgar, forestry engineer from the Slovenian Forestry Institute presented the plot establishment procedure, marking and sampling. The plot is located in a seed stand “Pri studencu” at the elevation of 520 m a.s.l.. The structure of the forest is even-aged, with 99% of beech and the plant association is Hacquetio-Fagetum. Interesting karst geomorphological phenomenons such as vrtača are present on the surface.

Tags: beech, croatia, davorin, dvor, forest, forestry, genetic, hrvatske, institute, kajba, LIFEGENMON, monitoring, oak, pendiculate, plot, Slovenia, slovenian, šume