SLOVENIA - 2011

Copacabana from Slovenia sent me this wonderful FDC recently. Thank you very much for the Swap!

Date of Issue: 27.05.2011 - left: Beech tree - right: Sgerm's Pine tree

Another Cover was sent by Barbara as an official Card; SI-40175! Thank you very much, Barbara!

Was on the Card, inside the Cover. Think it's the border from the Sheet.

EUROPEAN or COMMON BEECH – Fagus sylvatica L.

The beech is one of the most common tree species in Slovenia, accounting for a full 30 per cent of the country’s entire tree stock. It is the main or a mixed species in 70 per cent of Slovenia’s forests.
The beech is a deciduous tree with a large crown and exceptional leaf density. A full-grown hundred-year-old beech has a crown with a volume of 2700 m3. During the vegetation season that crown emits 1.6 kg of oxygen into the atmosphere every day.
In the autumn, beeches shed their leaves and the accumulated materials in them enrich the topsoil. The beech leaves decompose in one to two years and those nutritive materials enter a continuous cycle. They continuously enrich the soil – fertilising it in nature’s way. Since its leaves enrich the soil, in Slovenia the beech is called the “queen” or the “mother” of the forest.
Due to its adaptability, exceptional fertility and ability to grow in shade, it is found throughout Europe, except in northern Europe and the lower Iberian Peninsula. Therefore we could justifiably call the beech the “Tree of Europe”.

THE SGERM’S PINE

The Sgerm’s Pine in the Ribnica Pohorje is an exceptional tree. At 61.8 metres it is the tallest pine tree in Central Europe. Its height was measured precisely in 2006 using the right triangle trigonometry method. It is a slender, sky-scraping tree with a huge root structure and root ball which anchor it into the Pohorje soil.
It is a tree of the past. Approximately three hundred years ago a seed fell onto the fertile soil and the pine began to sprout and grow higher and higher. Today it is a natural monument. It is protected as a valuable natural feature pursuant to the Rules on the designation and protection of valuable natural features. It is also a tree of the future. The wind strews the seeds of the Sgerm’s Pine into the surrounding area, ensuring that the forest of the future is already being created.
The measurements and external signs of the pine, which are checked every year, indicate that the tree is still healthy. Through appropriate forestry techniques in the vicinity, its owners are maintaining beneficial living conditions for its continued growth. It is visited by numerous people who wish to experience the majesty of this tree. 

THE PRIMEVAL FOREST OF KOČEVJE
A primeval forest is a forest that has been preserved in its natural state, where no human influence can be felt. There, nature’s laws have prevailed for millennia. There, good and evil, beneficial and harmful do not exist. There, the plant and animal kingdoms are harmoniously connected with the sky and the soil.
In Slovenia, 380 hectares of primeval forest are protected by law, 220 ha of which are in Kočevje. They are the remains of once inaccessible forests. In them grow mighty firs and beeches. Fir trees can grow to exceptional sizes here: up to 50 metres tall, over 1.5 metres in diameter, carrying up to 50 tons of wood mass and living up to 500 years. Not far from the Rajhenavski primeval forest stands a fir called the Queen of the Forest, which at 51 metres tall is one of the tallest firs in Slovenia.
The first primeval forest in Slovenia to be protected by law was protected in Kočevje in 1892. In the forestry plan for the Kočevje forests, which were owned by the Prince of Auersperg, the forester Dr. Leopold Hufnagel wrote that part of the forest should be preserved as primeval forest. The first forestry plan in Kočevje states: “Departments 38 and 39 should be preserved as primeval forest, therefore all forms of use are excluded here.”
                                                                                                             
Hedvika Jenčič