COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1545/1999

of 14 July 1999

amending Regulation (EC) No 1091/94 laying down certain detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3528/86 on the protection of forests against atmospheric pollution

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 3528/86 of 17 November 1986 on the protection of the Community's forests against atmospheric pollution(1), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 307/97(2), and in particular Article 3(2) thereof,

(1) Whereas, pursuant to the third indent of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 3528/86, the purpose of the Community scheme is to help Member States to conduct intensive and continuous surveillance of forest ecosystems on permanent observation plots;

(2) Whereas, pursuant to Article 2(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 3528/86 Member States are required to forward to the Commission the data gathered by the network of permanent observation plots for intensive and continuous surveillance;

(3) Whereas this network has been installed by Member States in accordance with Annex I to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1091/94(3), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1390/97(4); whereas the common methodology and the format for the submission of data for the continous inventory of the crown condition, the inventory of soil and foliar condition, increment, deposition measurements, meteorological observations and soil solution monitoring have been laid down in Annexes III to X to Regulation (EC) No 1091/94;

(4) Whereas the results of the ground vegetation assessment are already recorded and the common methodology and the format for the data submission are to be added to Regulation (EC) No 1091/94; whereas the common methodology for measurements of meteorology has to be updated;

(5) Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Forestry Committee,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 1091/94 is hereby amended as follows:

1. Article 1(2) is replaced by the following: "On the permanent observation plots intensive and continuous surveillance of the forest ecosystems shall be carried out. This contains the continuous inventory on the crown condition, the inventory of soil and foliar condition and measurements on increment changes, deposition rates, meteorology, soil solution sampling and analysis and ground vegetation assessment in accordance with objective sampling methods and analysed in accordance with established methods".

2. Article 1(4) is replaced by the following: "Technical details pertaining to the provisions of this Article are set out in Annexes III to XI".

3. In Article 2(1) the following indent is added after the last indent: "- to carry out the assessment of ground vegetation".

4. Annex I is replaced by Annex I to this Regulation.

5. Annex II, is replaced by Annex II to this Regulation.

6. Annex VIIa is amended in accordance with Annex III to this Regulation.

7. Annex IX, is replaced by Annex IV to this Regulation.

8. Annex V to this Regulation is added as Annex XI.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 14 July 1999.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 326, 21.11.1986, p. 2.

(2) OJ L 51, 21.2.1997, p. 9.

(3) OJ L 125, 18.5.1994, p. 1.

(4) OJ L 190, 19.7.1997, p. 3.

ANNEX I

Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1091/94 is replaced by the following Annex:

"ANNEX I

COMMON METHODS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NETWORK OF PERMANENT OBSERVATION PLOTS FOR INTENSIVE, CONTINUOUS MONITORING

(Article 2(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 3528/86 and its amendments)

I. General remarks

The purpose of the scheme mentioned in Article 2(1) to Regulation 3528/86 and its amendments is to establish a network of permanent observation plots in the Member States of the Community and to collect data by intensive and continuous surveillance.

The objectives of the scheme are:

- to conduct an intensive and continuous monitoring of forest ecosystems in relation to the damage caused by atmospheric pollution and other factors influencing forest condition,

- to improve the understanding of the causal relationship between changes in forest ecosystem and the factors influencing it especially atmospheric pollution, by concentrating at a single location various measurements and monitoring of forest ecosystems and its components,

- to obtain relevant information on the evolution of a number of forest ecosystems in the Community.

II. Establishment of the network of permanent observation plots

II.1. Selection of plots

Member States selected by 30 June 1994 a sufficiently large number of permanent observation plots in their country. Since then some Member States have completed their national intensive monitoring programme by additional plots. The maximum number of these plots should be in principle limited for each Member State up to 15 plots, but Member States are allowed to select a larger number of plots under the condition that the number will not exceed 20 % of the number of national plots of the Community's 16 x 16 km gridnet (Regulation (EEC) No 1696/87).

The selection of these plots are in the responsibility of the Member States, although the following criteria for the selection should be applied:

- the plots should be located in such a way that the more important forest species and more widespread growing conditions in the respective country are represented,

- the minimum size of a plot shall be 0,25 hectares measured on a horizontal plane,

- to minimise the effects from activities on surrounding areas the plot shall be surrounded by a buffer zone. The actual width of the zone depends on the type and age of the forest. If the area of the plot and its surroundings is uniform with regard to height and age structure, the width of the buffer zone can be restricted to 5 or 10 m. If the forest area in which the plot is located consists of mixed stands, different species or age structure, the buffer zone shall be enlarged to up to five times the potential maximum height of the forest in the plot,

- as the plot will have to be available for long duration monitoring, it is necessary that the corners and/or boundaries are clearly marked and that each sample tree in the plot is numbered in a permanent way,

- the plots should be easily accessible at all times and no restriction with regard to the access and sampling should exist,

- there should be no differences in the management of the plot, its buffer zone and the surrounding forest (e.g. management operations should be comparable), and disturbances caused by the monitoring should be kept to a minimum),

- direct pollution from known local sources should be avoided. Plots should not be located in the immediate vicinity of farms, very close to main roads or in direct vicinity of polluting industries,

- a sufficient number of trees should be available for sampling in or near the plot,

- the plots and the buffer zone should be as uniform as possible regarding, e.g. species or species mixture, age, size, soil and slope,

- the plots should be located sufficiently far away from the forest edge.

It is recommended to select plots which have been monitored in recent years within the framework of Regulation (EEC) No 3528/86 or other programmes. When additional plots have to be selected it is recommended that plots are identical to or located near one of the existing plots of the Community's 16 x 16 km network and that plots are located in such a way that information from other sources (e.g. meteorological stations) can be used.

II.2. Installation and documentation of the plot

Member States submitted to the Commission in 1994 the general data and a detailed description of each plot.

The detailed description of the plot includes; the exact location of the plot, a sketch map showing the permanent marking other plot corners and/or boundaries, the number of trees in the plot and any other relevant permanent elements in or near the plot (e.g. access road, rivers). In the future, the exact location of sample sites (e.g. soil pits) shall also be recorded on this map.

II.3. Definition of a subplot

In principle all trees in the total plot are to be included in the sample for the tree assessment (e.g. crown inventory, increment assessment). Where the plot has many trees (i.e. dense stands), a subplot may be defined to be used for these surveys. The size of the subplot at the time of the installation of the plot should be large enough to give reliable estimates for these surveys for a minimum of 20 years, preferably throughout the life of the stand. A minimum of at least 20 trees in the subplot should be available in this period.

II.4. General information on each plot

The following general information on each permanent observation plot for intensive and continuous monitoring shall be collected during the installation and the first surveys:

>TABLE>

Where additional plots are installed in order to complete the national intensive monitoring programme the Member States shall forward to the Commission for each installed plot the information collected during the installation using a datafile (see Annex VIIa, Form la) and reports (see Annex VIIa, Form 1b) by the end of the same year in which (re-)installation took place. Important information obtained during the years of monitoring shall be submitted yearly using Forms 1a and 1b (Annex VII). The other information shall be submitted immediately after the first relevant survey has been carried out and will be updated when necessary.

III. Replacement of destroyed plots

III.1. General remarks

The selection of the plots for intensive monitoring is the responsibility of Member States. For this selection a number of criteria is laid down in this Annex. Most Member States have developed their own strategy for monitoring their national forest ecosystems, aiming at the observation of the more important tree species and growing conditions.

Although the plots were to be selected to be available for long term monitoring a premature destruction of the plot is always possible, due to fire etc. In some cases a number of final samplings can still be carried out before all trees of the plot have disappeared. The next step would be to review the strategy behind the selection criteria and to decide what criteria are to be applied to the selection procedure of the new plot.

III.2. Closure of a plot

The opportunity should be taken to make some final measurements/assessments. If still possible before the (final) destruction of the plot, a (destructive) sampling of the monitored trees in the plot can be made. After felling the exact tree length can be measured, stemdisks can be taken and precise foliar sampling can be carried out.

III.3. Strategy

The monitoring strategy in most Member States includes aspects on the forest area, forest ecosystem, species and often aspects of soil, meteorology and deposition levels. When a plot needs to be replaced the opportunity should be taken to verify whether the original strategy is still valid and how the gap can best be filled. In this context it should be considered that besides the original surveys (crown condition, soil, foliar and increment) additional surveys have been added to the programme in recent years (deposition, meteorology, soil solution, ground vegetation, remote sensing(1)). It is therefore recommended to take into account the evolution of the intensive monitoring programme when planning the replacement of plots.

In general, however, it might be advisable that the new plots are situated in the same region and have the same soil type, deposition level and tree species as the destroyed plots.

III.4. Reinstallation of the plot

For the selection of new plots the same criteria apply as for the destroyed plots. After installation of new plots some surveys, which are not repeated quickly should be carried out as soon as possible (i.e. soil and remote sensing). As the crown condition and foliage surveys are done yearly or two-yearly no additional survey of this kind directly after plot installation is necessary. Where the next regular increment survey is scheduled more than three years after plot installation increment measurements should be carried out directly after plot installation.

III.5. Special attention points

The reinstalled plots will be given a new number. Member States will submit to the Commission together with the next regular data submission information on the reason for the plot replacement, the results of last observations/measurements made and the criteria applied for the selection of the new plots.

(1) The technical details for the optional application of aerial photography on intensive monitoring plots are laid down in the Manual on remote sensing applications edited by the European Commission."

ANNEX II

"ANNEX II

APPLICATION FOR AID FROM THE COMMUNITY IN RESPECT OF THE MEASURES TO BE CARRIED OUT PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 2 OF REGULATION (EEC) No 3528/86 AND ITS AMENDMENTS

Applications for aid must be presented in accordance with Annex A to Commission Regulation (EEC) No 526/87(1) together with a summary of the information listed below and the completed table as included in this Annex as form 2a.

For each of the measures to be carried out in accordance to Article 2, information on the following items shall be given:

1. Brief description of the measures

2. Applicant

Links between the applicant and the measures

3. Agency responsible for carrying out the measures

Object and scope of the agency's main activities

4. Detailed description of the measures

where:

(a) the measures relate to establishing or extending the network of permanent observation plots for the intensive and continuous surveillance:

1. description of existing situation

2. geographical location and area of the region(s) concerned (plus cartographical document)

3. number of permanent observation plots;

(b) the measures relate to the establishment and execution of an inventory of the crown condition on the permanent observation plots:

1. description of existing situation

2. number of observation plots, which are be included in the the crown condition inventory (form 2a)

3. detailed description of the sampling procedure used at plot level (number of trees, markings, etc.)

4. indication of timetable for the execution of the projected measures (form 2b);

(c) the measures relate to the establishment and execution of an inventory of the soil condition on the permanent observation plots: