The System of Water-Protecting Forests in Russia and Variants for Its Justification and Improvement

The Russian system of water protection forests (WPF) is based on uniform areal principles for all huge territory of Russian Federation. It is too complicated, not targeted to problems of specific river basin and not effective as a whole. It is shown that so-named “restricted zones along water objects” have been an anachronism. The influence of forests to the main water-forming factors and to the water conservation effect of the forests on the catchment areas depends not only on forestry itself, but rather on soil cover, and on relief. All these factors are considered in detail. The conclusions about the necessity both for changes in requirements for loggers in the direction of conservation as of soils and vegetation cover during forestry activities, and for optimization of the existing over-complicated WPF in the direction of its simplification and clearer legislative justification are made.