New Starting point - New focus area

A meeting in Lomb Forest in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, marked the starting point of the URBforDAN prolongued project period in a new focus area. Cluj-Napoca Municipality and Cluj Metropolitan Area - partners within the URBFORDAN project - together with the specialists from Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, had a field visit in the Lomb Forest, the second focus area of the international URBforDAN project. Lomb forest is located in the north-western part of the Cluj-Napoca city. The URBforDAN team is now studying the forest with the aim of developing a management plan, that has already been tested in the project. The project is intended to keep the current image of urban forests and to make sure that the forest areas become places for socialization, relaxation, recreation and education.

Facts & Figures

Here are some really interesting facts about Lomb Forest: The overall diversity of the trees (i.e. in terms of species richness) is high (with about 15-20 tree species). The forest has a well pronounced vertical stratification including a lot of areas with natural tree regeneration. The main native species to be found in the forest study area are sessile oak (Quercus petraea), hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and English oak (Quercus robur).

old tree specimens

Some native species like Norway maple (Acer platanoides) and silver lime (Tilia tomentosa) and non-native ones like plane (Platanus sp.) and red oak (Quercus rubra) could be found in localized patches and occurs in homogenous stands, being plantations. Excepting small areas with young forests of 20-25 years, the average age of the forest is about 60-80 years. However, old tree specimens belonging to English Oak, Sessile oak and Wild cherry were noted in the study area.