MID-FIELD WOODLOTS – ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS AND TRADITION OF FIRE PROTECTION USE

In agricultural areas, afforestation SYSTEMS – including mid-field, roadside, and waterside woodlots - when systematically introduced and continuously maintained, offer numerous benefits to both people and the environment. These benefits encompass biological-ecological, technical, aesthetic, and social functions that are closely interrelated. One of the additional but crucial functions is fire protection, especially in treeless fields and densely built-up villages (residential and agricultural ones). The role of trees as natural fire barriers has been recognized for centuries. This practice has been widely used in forestry and traditionally around houses and farmsteads as protection against lightning strikes and the spread of fire. Protective shelterbelts have also been established along railway tracks, roads, and around industrial zones, where the risk of fire outbreak is high. Long-term research and observations by the authors indicate that, in contrast to other European countries, Poland is experiencing a gradual degradation of existing shelterbelts, with insufficient supplementation and expansion of these structures.