A Reader asked us to publicize the issue after drawing attention to piles of waste lying in the forest in Bożejowice. “It is a huge problem,” says Forest District Manager Władysław Nowak. Forest land in our county covers more than 19,000 hectares. “We have only two guards and 20 Forest Service employees. We are unable to monitor such a large area.”
Nadleśnictwo Bolesławiec has been fighting the dumping of waste in forests for many years. This year, the foresters rented three large waste containers. They soon had to abandon the idea. “Within one or two days, a container was full, and several dozen bags of waste were lying around it,” the forest district manager says. “People from the city brought the waste. It is sad to say, but they were mainly residents of Bolesławiec.”
The same thing happened at the bend near Jeleniogórska Street. Employees of the Municipal Communal Services Company clean the area at least once a month because travelers who stop there leave behind a great deal of waste. The municipal company placed a large waste container there. “That was when people began bringing waste here from across the city,” says Izabela Członka, head of the MZGK cleaning and transport department.
The containers rented by the forest district were removed, but people did not stop littering. “We monitor the forests as far as possible,” Władysław Nowak notes. The problem is that high fines—up to PLN 500—do not deter everyone. “We are fighting this by educating society,” the forest district manager says. “We believe that educating people is better than punishing them.”
Why is keeping forests clean so important? “The forest is our home,” the forest district manager emphasizes. “Experts from Western Europe speak very highly of Polish forest management. Let us not waste that.”
(information ii)