On 21 May 2026, the Balaton Uplands National Park Directorate (BfNPI), together with WWF Hungary and the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, organized a field visit for the media to the LIFE4OakForests project site near Pécsely in the Balaton Uplands. During the event, participants visited forest stands where conservation-oriented forest management interventions have been carried out since 2018 to accelerate the recovery of natural ecological processes and improve biodiversity.
The 15-hectare project area is located in the Pécsely Basin and represents a characteristic Balaton Uplands forest landscape. The site consists mainly of Pannonian oak-hornbeam forests, together with downy oak and Turkey oak woodlands. Past intensive forestry practices created large, even-aged forest compartments with simplified structure and species composition, while non-native black pine plantations replaced some native stands. Nature conservation management was changed to cooperative forestry practices around three decades ago, creating the basis for ecological restoration.
The LIFE4OakForests project applies innovative conservation forestry methods to restore more natural forest conditions. In Pécsely, forestry managers created canopy gaps of different sizes by felling selected trees and ring-barking others, allowing them to die gradually and generate valuable standing and lying deadwood habitats. These interventions increase structural diversity and support natural regeneration processes. Additional measures included planting the rare native admixed tree species, for example service tree (Sorbus domestica), reducing the dominance of Turkey oak, and using Eurasian jays to disperse downy oak acorns and improve the balance of native oak species.
The site also serves as a demonstration area showing how targeted, small-scale interventions can significantly speed up forest recovery. Visitors observed that many visible signs of former industrial forestry have already disappeared, and the forest now displays a more diverse structure and richer species composition, moving closer to its natural state. To support regeneration, fenced exclosures have also been established to reduce browsing pressure from abundant deer and wild boar populations.
https://www.life4oakforests.eu/
