Reformatting wind­ breaks of Kyiv region into linear plantings of sil­voarable agroforestry

Windbreaks, planted in the middle of the last cen­tury, are at the age of quantitative maturity, losing aerodynamic properties and design features, which is a consequence of the growth and spread of crowns of edge trees into the fields, increasing their width. That requires significant costs for forestry care and thinning, associated with the formation of optimal designs. This is achieved by reducing the width of windbreaks by clearing or removing edge rows, which transforms them into silvoarable agroforestry plantations. The object of research consisted of 7 classical and 9 transformed windbreaks in the central part of the Right-Bank Forest-Steppe region. The list of trees by categories of health condition and Kraft classes was made at the 16 trial plots and the main forestry and amelioration indicators were determined. The studied stands of VI-VIII age classes fully exert a melioration effect on the inter fields. The protective heights of classical windbreaks are 2–4 m higher than those of transformed plantations, which is reflected in a decrease in the productivity of the latter in I–II quality classes. It was found that all the transformed windbreaks acquired an blown and sieve-looked designs, which contributes to an effective impact on wind regulation, ameliorative protection of adjacent ares. The health condition index of classical and trans­formed windbreaks varies within 2.0–2.9 and 1.5–2.4, respectively. The absence of dead trees or their small proportion (up to 2.6%) in transformed windbreaks improves the health condition of these plantations. This is also evidenced by lower values of the weighted average Kraft’s classes and an increase in the number of dominant and sub-dominant trees in transformed windbreaks. A relationship between the health condition of stands and the proportion of trees of Kraft’s classes has been established, which is optimally descri­bed by linear equations. The use of linear models is of practical importance in determining the health condition of stands by the weighted average Kraft’s class. Positive practical solutions for reformatting classic windbreaks into silvoarable agroforestry plan­tations include reducing the width of linear planta­tions, freeing up arable area for agricultural production, reducing costs for caring and maintaining the plantations, and optimizing the aerodynamic proper­ties of windbreaks, which improves their ameliorative impact on adjacent fields.