FOREST MELIORATION FRAME OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS IN THE IUDINSKAYA FOOTHILL STEPPE OF KHAKASSIA

The objective of the study is to conduct a forestry-melioration assessment of the field-protective forest strips (FPFS) on an erosion-hazardous group of arable lands and hayfields. The objects of the study were FPFS and herbaceous vegetation in the Iudinskaya foothill steppe of Khakassia. The work used the integral assessment of meliorative indicators of E.S. Pavlovsky and the scale for assessing the sanitary condition of trees. The studies showed that in the southern rows the trees were weakened or healthy, in the central and northern ones – weakened, very weakened or drying out. FPFS had the height and structures necessary for a good melioration function: openwork, openwork-blown; massive protective planting – dense. The preservation of plantings in FPFS was average and amounted to from 55.0 to 70.5 %, in massive protective planting – low (34.7 %). The planting species were optimal in terms of composition: Ulmus pumila L., Betyla pendula Roth, Populus sp. The tree height was noted as maximum in these forest gro¬wing conditions. Fine earth deposits were not found in any of the surveyed forest plantations. Soil sodding was characterized as weak, medium or strong. Grasses dominated in phytocenoses. The total projective cover of the grass stand was 40–90 %. Forestry-melioration assessment of four FPFS was 4 a; one – 5 a. Despite the poor sanitary condition of trees in individual rows, the stands, due to their optimal design, performed their meliorative functions, prevented soil deflation in the fields and created an ecological framework for the agrolandscape on agricultural lands. Ulmus pumila has reached a critical age and reforestation felling must be carried out in its stands.