“Society is not fully aware that we are in a tragic moment related to our property and what we are attached to” – MP Paweł Sałek said in an interview for Schuman Optics Magazine. The politician also referred to the idea of placing 2.5 thousand wind turbines in Polish forests.
“The Polish forest farm, covering 1/3 of the country, is being run to the point of collapse, and this is about economic collapse resulting from the exclusion of more and more areas managed by the state forest farm, the State Forests. This exclusion from use is based on the fact that under the great slogans of falsely understood nature protection, it is possible that subsequent areas, hundreds of thousands of hectares, will not be benefited” – Paweł Sałek warned. He also pointed out that the matter is very serious because under these great, false slogans of nature protection, a situation is being created in which, due to the economic factor, forests will not be able to earn money, sustain themselves, or pay various types of levies to the state treasury or to local governments. “It will happen that this largest nature and forestry company in the European Union will go bankrupt” – he did not hide his fears.
Paweł Sałek pointed out that this nature and forestry company has been involved in the use, i.e. protection of nature, for over a hundred years. “But in our country, sustainable forest management has been going on for centuries. Please note that as Poles we are able to take care of forests, live from forests, use and protect them” – he emphasized, adding that “foresters are the first naturalists in Poland”. “They were the ones who established the reserves. They were the ones who founded national parks. They were the ones who created the first truly ecological non-governmental organizations. They are the ones who take care of this nature” – he recalled.
“Today, as a result of government decisions, because such government decisions are made, through the actions of the management of the Ministry of Climate and Environment, new, non-statutory forms of nature protection are being introduced, which will lead to the fact that it will no longer be possible to use forests as we know them today. It’s about obtaining wood, but not only that” – he said.
“If the ministry says that it has a great ambition to create a hundred reserves and at the same time says that it will be possible to pick mushrooms in the reserves, it is false, because in accordance with the Nature Protection Act, in a reserve or national park we only move along designated paths” – he corrected media reports.
Polish foresters have been successfully taking care of forests for 100 years
“Everyone envies these forests in Europe. They envy our forms of forest management. They envy us natural resources, which are excellent because we use these resources. We can protect them and at the same time benefit from them” – Sałek pointed out. He also reminded that in Poland, thanks to foresters, half a billion trees are planted every year and our forests are growing. There is no possibility of further plantings because the there are not enough space or area to expand the forest.
“There has been a terrible attack on the foresters community for several years. They are labeled as nature destroyers, they are shown with an ax and a chainsaw, they are supposedly the ones who are destroying nature, they are cutting down the forest, and they are managing the entire forest ecosystem in such a way that it is renewable, constantly increasing its abundance and to serve us all” – he warned.
Paweł Sałek pointed out that the money to lie to the public that sustainable forest management is harmful and to destroy the image of the Polish forester came from outside. “It was done consciously” – he said.
Extra-treaty appropriation of competences
Referring to the position of the European Union, which last year, by decision of the European Parliament and the European Commission, decided that logging or any human interference in the forest will be treated as its destruction, Paweł Sałek said: “There is a paradox here, but it is probably done consciously for the sake of the fact that those countries that have lost their natural resources as a result of intensive exploitation of their natural resources, including the expansion of roads, express railways, massive industrialization and urbanization of their areas, today, through the European Commission, say Poles about how to protect their valuable, existing and functioning natural resources. This is absolutely absurd. Please show me the forests we have in the Netherlands, Spain or any other country”.
“Today in the European Union, outside the treaty, huge legislation on forestry is being implemented, but it is done through nature protection. Many documents are being created, which this government is eagerly implementing on December 13, which affect the functioning of Polish forests, which affect 1/3 of the country, and in a way we are denied the authority and management of our national assets” – he warned. “Exclusion of 20 percent forests from use, which is written in the coalition agreement, is a problem because the illegal activities used by the Ministry of the Environment are translated into practice through instructions and orders to the Director General of the State Forests, who also bears some responsibility for the fact that even if he received the order in writing which is illegal, he should consider whether to actually implement it” – he noted.
“Our entire natural structure, which has been shaped for decades, is suddenly being destroyed in a dramatic way in one year, in just a few months” – the politician did not hide his chagrin.
Sałek emphasized that the exclusion of 20 percent Removing forest area from use is nothing more than causing an artificial ecological disaster. “Due to the EU instructions that we receive in the country and which this government willingly implements, such that non-governmental organizations have full power and de facto carry out activities in the Ministry of the Environment, the greatest national wealth that Poles have is being destroyed” – he concluded by adding that “our greatest asset is our land, forests and what is under these forests.”
“If this structure and the organizational and legal form of self-financing of the State Forests farm are broken, then we will have to wonder what to do with the forests: or maybe a company? Or maybe forests within city limits to local governments and starostes? Or maybe regional companies? Or perhaps separate nature protection from timber harvesting altogether? There were such ideas. Fortunately, President Andrzej Duda blocked them” – Sałek said. For him, it is obvious that “if forests do not have money for their current operation, a discussion will begin on how to reform them”. “Already today, optimization is being carried out in the General Directorate of the State Forests” – he informed.
“Society is not fully aware that we are in a tragic moment related to our property and what we are attached to” – Paweł Sałek admitted. “The idea is to lead the State Forests to economic collapse under the great slogan of nature protection, convincing the society that what has happened so far has been bad, and that only this government will protect nature, and this is nonsense. Everything that we are envied throughout Europe is being destroyed” – he concluded.
Paweł Sałek announced that there is a request to convene a nationwide referendum on maintaining the formal, organizational and legal structure of the State Forests and on maintaining the strategic nature of natural resources and appealed for signatures.
Will 2,500 wind turbines be built in Polish forests?
Referring to the idea of installing 2,500 wind turbines in Polish forests, Paweł Sałek noted: “If 2,500 turbines were to be built in forest areas, then 6 turbines per forest district. We have to ask: what impact will this have on nature? Where are all the non-governmental organizations that raised the issue of Białowieża so much, that clear-cutting is being done somewhere on a small area, and that forest machines are being used in the forests? I ask this question both in the Sejm and in the press and no one answers. As for this stupid idea of windmills in forests, no non-governmental organization has criticized it so far”.
“As for windmills, this is a crazy idea and I hope that the Forests will withdraw from it. After all, what will be the environmental cost! You have to dig the foundation, pour it with concrete, reinforcement, reinforced concrete, a large column, access roads, evacuation routes, fire escape routes. This is all it has to be. Comprehensive ongoing service and the noise it creates. There is also the issue of lease – there is a provision that apparently we will lease the land for 50 years. What is it? Privatization of forests by leasing land for windmills?” – he asked rhetorically.
The problem is indeed serious, because building wind farms in forests would lead to an ecological disaster on an unprecedented scale. Windmill blades would kill birds, bats and other flying creatures, while tons of grease would seep into the ground, polluting it in a way that is difficult to remediate. In addition, there is infrasound emitted by wind farms, which would have a negative impact not only on people, but also on forest animals – basically every living creature. A problem would also arise if such a windmill caught fire, and these are not uncommon – then a forest fire would certainly occur. The question of where ecologists are at this point seems extremely justified.
Anna Wiejak