Living for the forest
Interview on the 100th anniversary
of the State Forests
Awards at the 19th FilmAT Festival for films by the Krzeszowice Forest District.
NATIONAL COMPETITION
DOCUMENTARIES & TV REPORTS
Category: Biographies/30 min.
1st Prize
Series “Forest people”
Krzeszowice Forest District
NATIONAL COMPETITION
DOCUMENTARIES & TV REPORTS
Category: Biographies/90 min.
1st Prize
“History of the forest written by people”
Krzeszowice Forest District
from Aleksandra Czechowicz-Woźniak – Deputy Director of the Museum of Sport and Tourism,
Zbigniew Żmudzki – Chairman of the Jury, and Agnieszka Pyla – Jury Member at the 19th FilmAT Festival.
Kordian Habel – Supervision Engineer, thanks for the received awards.
Kordian Habel – Supervising Engineer from the Krzeszowice Forest District and Slawomir Kowalik – forester from the Myślenice Forest District – are my interviewees today.
Ewa Kotus: The film ‘Forest History Written by Man’, as well as the entire series of films ‘People of the Forest’, are first and foremost your brainchildren, as all the films were created according to your idea. I remember when you submitted films to the competition and said that on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the State Forests, foresters from the Krzeszowice Forest District, located near Kraków, took cameras in their hands and made several films. And you assured me that they would be interesting. And indeed all the films enthralled! We saw a forest and a man immersed in it, who shared his experience of the forest, strong emotions and concrete experiences. And a question began to trouble us. After all, each of us has a different sensitivity. However, despite this fact, is there one quality that we all have in common when communing with the power of forest nature?
Kordian Habel: The forest… For each person it has a different image and a different meaning, because each of us has an individual approach to nature and uses its proximity differently.
The forest is perceived differently by a person who is just a visitor, a casual passer-by, and differently by a person for whom the forest is a place to work, live, realise and fulfil his or her big dreams and plans.
Different images of the forest are retained by a fearful man and by a teenager. Before answering your question, let us return for a moment to the film, to the characters in the story ‘The History of the Forest Written by Man’ and the individual episodes of the series ‘People of the Forest’.
Different images of the forest are retained by an elderly person and by a teenager. Before answering your question, let us return for a moment to the film, to the characters in the story ‘The History of the Forest Written by Man’ and the individual episodes of the series ‘People of the Forest’.
These are representatives of five generations. Different times, different people, only the power of the forest nature they serve is the same. Let’s take a look at 20-year-old Paweł, who is a graduate of the Forestry Technical Secondary School in Stary Sącz, is starting his extramural studies and, while working as an intern in the forest, is passionate about photographing nature…
E.K.: Let us stop at this passion for observing and photographing. For Paweł, the forest is a treasure box of knowledge and secrets that he discovers.Watching this episode I had the impression that Paweł was in a hurry, impatient, rebellious, his childhood knowledge of the forest was not enough. Now he reacts immediately to everything he sees in the forest. He sports in the forest, he photographs carefully to capture every wonder of nature, he rebels at the stupidity of people who don’t understand the needs of the forest… His attitude is truly uplifting.
K.H.: Second in age order is 40-year-old forester Slawomir Kowalik, who came with me to the Awards Ceremony.
E.K.: It was a pleasure to welcome you in Warsaw during our film ceremony, where the State Forests took such an important place. The TOURIST 2024 out-of-competition statuette went to your institution on the occasion of its beautiful 100th anniversary. Your thoughts shared in the film are not only professional, but also the most romantic. I am glad that during the celebration of a great birthday we can talk to you personally and convey your thoughts.
Sławomir Kowalik: The 100th anniversary of the State Forests is important for all Poles, because the achievements of these 100 years can be seen in the beautiful Polish forests and in Polish homes – too. For me, they also have a personal meaning, because the Forest – is a plan for my life.
Let’s take a simple, step-by-step look at what a forester’s job is about? Let me start with something very unromantic, but on which the quality of people’s daily lives depends.
The daily routine of a forester is timber processing and timber sales, i.e. organising the work of a company that provides services for the forest. Forestry service companies have contracts with the State Forests for felling, i.e. harvesting the wood, and skidding, i.e. taking the wood out of the forest to a place where a car can come and load it, i.e. to a place of sale.
The daily bread of every forester is the grading and harvesting of timber to get it to market. Cutting wood and harvesting it is an offshoot of silviculture, that constant care of the forest.
We try to make sure that every cut is a well-considered cut, because we are obliged to do so by a document – a 10-year operation, which is drawn up by experts employed by the Forest Management Office.
At every stage of the forest’s growth, we try first and foremost to ensure that all the trees are healthy, which means we take great care of the sanitary condition of the forest. The most important thing is healthy trees that will grow well, that have a nice crown, and we try to cut down those trees that get in the way. Every year, the forester and the sub-forester, in a selected area, make a stock-taking estimate, putting a dot on the tree that should be removed. Major damage is done by storms…
E.K.: But apparently people don’t want wood after a lightning strike?
S.K.: Yes, it’s true! They believe that if they burn wood ‘marked’ by a lightning strike, lightning can fly up through their chimney. This is a strongly ingrained superstition, so the wood remains in the forest after a lightning strike. This is an example of how many factors influence what happens in the forest. Forest superstition has its power.
E.K.: Foresters have a vast knowledge of the forest and its needs. This is not only the scientific knowledge gained in the forestry departments of universities, but also the rich professional experience they have accumulated. And here a big nod goes to the teachers of the various levels of forestry schools.
K.H. An outstanding character, is one the protagonists of our film – Mrs Wanda. She is a retired teacher who directed her entire professional life towards the education of young people, precisely in a specialised school. She was a role model for her students in striving for excellence and being a good person. She always saw great potential in her pupils and a great deal of commitment to learning.
The film forces the viewer to think a lot. Did the fact that she grew up far away from people, in a forester’s lodge, somewhere at the ‘end of the world’, have shaped her as a person who is open to other people and who loves nature?
Mr Roman, a retired head forester of the Nowy Targ Forest District, will soon be 80 years old. He is the great history of the Podhale region and its forests. A man who had a real impact on the lives of many people and the current shape of the mountain forests. The film stills depict the difficult, sometimes very complicated relations of foresters with their surroundings. We also showed the work of a forester in very tough mountain conditions. This encounter with a forester builds a positive, respectful and loving image of a man – a man of the forest, a faithful but humble son of Mother Nature.
K.H.: We are proud to have been able to immortalise a remarkable forester, Mr Zygmunt, who has turned one hundred years old and is a man who has seen so much that little can amaze him. He has lived through a war, 8 popes, 18 US presidents, 7 British rulers – starting with George V, all the presidents of Poland except Gabriel Narutowicz and all the directors general of the State Forests….
E.K.: Meeting a centenarian forester is a great honour for all of us. His memoirs are a remarkable history lesson, a story of a world that is no longer there.This episode is an important document for the State Forests and for us, for all Poles. This episode symbolically sums up the 100-year history of the State Forests. Let us attach it in its entirety to this conversation.
K.H.: On the day before the Award Ceremony at the Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw, we attended his 102nd birthday party. He continues to impress us with his willingness and joy of life.
E.K.: So the forest gives us the strength to live, do you agree with this Mr Sławomir?
S.K.: Yes, the forest gives enormous strength to live. When we have a faithful friend in our lives who does not let us down, life has meaning for us. And forests were and are a friendly wonder of nature. The nature of the forest has always given and continues to give man a sense of peace and security, an atmosphere for reflection, our eyes can rest in the beautiful colours of natural wildlife, we can breathe in the good air, enjoy the scent of forest nature….
E.K.: … even in winter the forest is scented?
S.K: Yes, the forest also smells beautiful in winter, because forest nature cares for our senses at any time of the year, but it does so differently at each season.
E.K.: When we watched the episode of the series in which you are the protagonist, two important things remained in our minds. We understood that every forester is professionally trained for his job, he is educated, he has the right knowledge gained at university, and therefore he is allowed to decide his actions in relation to mother nature. He is like a doctor, obliged to treat his professional work as a vocation and to heal wounds… Who wounds forest nature?
S.K.: The climate is changing across our globe – this is a fact. Nature is rebelling under the influence of ill-considered, harmful human actions. Unexpected turbulence and phenomena, stronger lightning, cataclysms, force us foresters to observe the forest more and more intensively and help it to last. Everyone must understand that our every action in the forest, which so outrages some nature conservationists, falls under the scope of environmental protection and nurturing mother nature tired of civilisation. The forest absolutely demands that we observe and care for it.
E.K.: I remembered the image emerging from the film story of you. You live in the forest, in a wooden house in Pcim (Leśniczówka Węglówka), surrounded by an old orchard, recreated by you, in which old strains of apple trees such as grey reneta and golden reneta grow. You are surrounded by animals, as the sheep naturally take care of the life of the orchard. Of course, you have your small office, well-equipped as we live in the 21st century, but you look at the forest not only as a professional forester, but also as a poet, a painter, an artist.
S.K. The romanticism of the forest, especially in this forestry, shows itself to me in these old hollow trees. Neither cars nor helicopters can be heard here, nor people running around, telephones… A forest complex such as the one in which I live proves that it can be economic and can be a refuge for a man who is searching for himself, searching for depth, who can touch nature with his heart and, by the way, also hear himself, by touching nature.
E.K.: So the second piece of wisdom that will remain in our minds forever: the forest calms, soothes and helps us to know ourselves.
S.K.: The world is rushing by, surrounded by an avalanche of different things and a flurry of information, emails, photos and videos, surrounded by people who are not always cheerful, we need a reliable friend….
E.K.: And the forest will hug…