When we open Seidl's book Kamniške and Savinjske Alpe today, a world unfolds before us (as when you click on the video) that almost no longer exists. A world where the beech forest once stood like "gigantic columns covered with a living green vault," where the observant person walked on soft forest litter, where the forest was a space of silence, shade, and mysterious beauty. A world in which man still felt like a guest — not a master.
More than a century later, this image is almost a utopia.
Today, the hiker often no longer strolls along the "cart track by the Bistrica," but along a wide forest skid trail that the forester — under pressure from the owner, economics, and subsidies — has carved across the slope like a furrow. Instead of the undulating beech crowns, a bare clearing opens before him where the forest once stood. Instead of ancient beeches that once provided shade, drank, and released moisture in an established rhythm, a vast clearing of sycamore maple grows today, a pioneer species that fills the void when the forest disappears.
And the forester is satisfied.
Because the space is "arranged."
Because the wood is "exploited."
Because the skid trail is "accessible."
Because there is now plenty of space for glamping and perhaps for an even larger, paid parking lot.
But the landscape is impoverished. Which, of course, also suits the tourist who wants a selfie print of the mountain.
The beech, once the queen of these slopes, has disappeared in many places. Not because of nature, but because of man, who in the century between Seidl and us changed his relationship to the forest: from admiration to production, from respect to exploitation, from silence to the noise of chainsaws and tractors.
Seidl wrote about the forest as a sanctuary.
Today, the forest is often an industrial workshop.
Seidl described the "peaceful twilight pierced here and there by a ray of sunlight."
Today, this twilight is interrupted by tire tracks, caterpillar tracks, open clearings that did not arise from wind but from economics.
Seidl admired the "undulation of rounded beech tops."
Today, this undulation often ends in a sharp cutting line where the landscape breaks like a torn sheet.
And yet — precisely for that reason, Seidl is so valuable today.
Not as nostalgia, but as a reminder of how quickly something that seemed self-evident can disappear.
Beech forests have not died out everywhere. But where they have, they have not been replaced by new wilderness, but by sycamore monoculture, overgrowth, erosion, scattered skid trails that cross every ten meters. A landscape that has lost its structure, its rhythm, its soul.
Perhaps it is time to ask ourselves: Is the science to which Seidl belonged really so (corrupt). Is the "expertise" really just a tool? Do we want Seidl to remain only a memory?
Or can we recognize in his description values worth preserving?
The forest is not just raw material.
It is a protective space that shapes our landscape, our climate, our identity.
And if we have lost it in a century, we can — if we want — restore it in the next. We demand immediate cutting of sycamore, planting of beech, and filling of skid-torrent gullies. At the expense of the owner and the "experts." We demand immediate re-education of experts with "proper textbooks," axe, sweat, and horse, and a complete ban on spray. We demand the complete restoration of the Koželj Path so that tourists from Kamnik (where they are invited), where they will park their tin, can walk into the once again beautiful world …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToP1IXY-Pgg&t=117s Below is an updated excerpt (so that even some younger ones and those from the Institute for Nature Conservation will understand, …) from the book Kamniške and Savinjske Alpe, their structure and face. Popular geological and landscape description. Written by Ferdinand Seidl, published by Matica Slovenska in 1907 …
The plant cover of the Kamniško-Savinjske Alps … The southern slopes of the Savinjske Alps – in the central group from Olševka to Žaga in the Črna Valley (see vegetation map) and the slopes of the Kamniška Bistrica Valley and its side valleys – are covered by magnificent beech forests. As elsewhere in the Alps, beech prefers southern and sheltered locations here too. In places, especially in the upper part of the Bistrica Valley, ancient, mighty trees with trunks more than a meter thick still stand. Exceptional beech forests also grow in the recesses of the northern valleys: in Robanov Kot, Logarska Dolina, Matkov Kot, Belska, and both Jezerska Kotlinas.
Beech is one of the most beautiful deciduous trees in our forests. An old beech forest acts like gigantic columns covered with a living green vault – a true natural sanctuary. The juicy green leaves on the tops, trembling in the gentle breeze, merge into a dense roof. Beneath it reigns cool, moist shade, permeated with peaceful twilight pierced here and there by a beam of sunlight. It is no wonder that the Kamniška Bistrica Valley has so many visitors – among other things due to the attractive power of its immense beech forests. When walking along the Bistrica on the cart track, friendly gaps open between the trees, revealing densely overgrown opposite slopes, the undulation of rounded beech tops, and intervening patches of gray limestone rock. Where the view opens up, an enchanting picture unfolds before us: from the green foreground, white peaks of Grintavec, Skuta, Brana, and Greben rise high under the blue sky.
The bushy beech tops intercept light all the more as they close in on each other. Therefore, little other vegetation develops beneath them. The ground is covered with a thick layer of slowly decaying leaves that rustle underfoot. The beech forest is most beautiful in spring. In the short weeks when the leaves are just awakening from the buds, many herbaceous plants and those that overwinter with bulbs or rhizomes take advantage. They quickly turn green, unfold flowers, and complete their annual cycle before the beech shade engulfs them again. Then the forest is adorned with colorful spring jewelry: masses of white snowdrops, yellow primroses, bright blue flowers of the two-leaved squill (Scilla bifolia), lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis), violets, blue stars of hepatica (Anemone hepatica), and other flowers. When the beech greens up, this delicate decoration disappears. Only plants adapted to the shade persist – wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), sweet woodruff (Asperula odorata), and others. The ground is covered with soft moss cushions, and dark lichens settle on the smooth beech trunks. In autumn, fungi revive the forest as the wind already scatters yellow leaves from the tops.
On the eastern, more wind-exposed slopes of the central group of the Savinjske Alps, beech forests are replaced by spruce ones. We recognize them from afar by their dark green color and slender, conical tops. On steep slopes, they are sparser, so rich shrubbery and undergrowth develop between them. The ground is covered with mosses, above which dense heather (Erica carnea) grows, coloring the slopes in a delicate reddish hue in spring. On more fertile soils, bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) and lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) predominate, enlivening the forest with their red berries. Here and there, a lilac flower of martagon lily (Lilium martagon) rises, next to it the dark blue columbine (Aquilegia nigricans) with its Gothic-shaped spurs. Among the spruces also grow orchids, autumn gentian (Gentiana asclepiadea), yellow sage (Salvia glutinosa), masterworts (Astrantia carniolica, A. major), and other flowers. Higher up, shrubs appear: mountain rose (Rosa pendulina), hawthorn, whitebeam (Sorbus aria), and juniper. The blue-flowered alpine clematis (Clematis alpina) climbs through the shrubs. Beard lichens (Usnea barbata) hang from spruce branches. Among spruces also grow larches, firs, maples, and lower down pines, which further increase the forest's diversity.
Larch likes skeletal soils and on northern slopes forms even independent forests. Its light, translucent top with juicy green tufts of needles creates bright groves without shrubs, where the ground is covered with dense grass – like a natural meadow.
The northern side of the Savinjske Alps and the slopes of the Kokrska Valley are covered by extensive mixed forests in which spruce, larch, and beech predominate. Arolla pine (Pinus cembra) has already disappeared, yew is a rarity (e.g., in Suh Dol above Solčava). In higher locations, beech no longer thrives, so conifers predominate, forming the upper forest belt. The mixed forest is home to extremely diverse vegetation. Fallen leaves do not cover the ground as densely as in beech forest, so they decompose faster and form a rich layer of black humus. Tree tops let in more light, so shade-loving plants as well as those of coniferous forests develop here, along with many other species. On steep, hard-to-reach areas where the axe has not yet reached, true primeval forests stand.
Timber treasures are still poorly exploited. Only in places is the forest completely clear-cut. On such cuttings, fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) and other flowers quickly spread, but in the struggle for space, young trees soon predominate – except where gray alder (Alnus incana) explodes, which can permanently take over.
Man often uses clearings for pastures, in lower locations for homes, fields, and hay meadows. In the forest belt, settlements are scattered along the valleys – in villages, hamlets, and solitary farms, denser in the foothills, especially where the geological base is favorable (Šenturška Gora, Štefanja Vas). On remote mountain slopes, mainly southern ones, there are only small hamlets and solitary farms, e.g., in the upper Kokrska and Savinjska Valleys and their side sections. Around Solčava, in Logarska Dolina and Matkov Kot, farms are at an average altitude of about 850 m. The highest farms are Matko (1200 m), Planinšek above Luče (1087 m), Štajerski Rak (1050 m), and Rekar in the Lomšica Valley above Tržič (1020 m).
Above 800 meters, agriculture yields only a modest harvest. Residents therefore devote themselves more to livestock farming and forest exploitation. Hay meadows in the valleys have the greatest value. The most beautiful meadows, however, are in the wide basin of Gornje Jezersko, on the site of a former lake. In June, these meadows are at the peak of growth: among the tall, lush grass, a multitude of colorful flowers blooms …
To be continued …
Source:
https://gore-ljudje.net/novosti/ustavimo-nepremisljeno-sanacijo-v-kamniski-beli-2/