forests as a knowledge source for central European silviculture: Reality or myth

In central Europe, the few remnants of virgin forest left have often been studied for reasons based on the following line of argument: Such studies increase our understanding of forest dynamics under a natural disturbance regime and are therefore an important basis for close-to-nature silvi-culture. This paper reviews the history of this idea, examines its merits and drawbacks focusing on selected silvicultural issues, and explores the potential for using virgin forest research as a source of ideas for developing silviculture in future. Research on virgin forests has had important implications for managed forests in the case of maintaining nurse logs as a seedbed for tree seedlings, of knowing the maximum age and size of trees, and, to a minor extent, of identifying the habitat requirements of species which are found mainly in virgin forests. However, past research on virgin forests has not provided any major direct contributions to defining close-to-nature silviculture. The main obstacles to knowledge transfer seem to be: (i) the scarcity of virgin forest remnants in central Europe, (ii) differences between the stand histories and current stand structures in virgin and managed forests, and (iii) the better opportunities to study phenomena of interest directly in managed forests, with easie