Vegetation is one of the basic criteria determining quality of life in an urban area, and it plays an important health, sanitation, recreational and aesthetic role. The authors discuss the status of the green areas in Lublin, with special regard to the Park Ludowy which used to be the city’s landmark in the late 80-s. Unfortunately, in the last few years, its condition was increasingly degraded due to the negligence, lack of management, and heavy-handed human interference in the natural environment. The level of devastation to trees in a considerable area of the park may be described as disastrous.
The study focused on the effects of deforestation by heavy winds and tree stand damage produced by bark beetle invasion on water chemistry of mountainous catchment of Kościeliski Stream in the Tatra National Park (southern Poland). 200 samples of stream and spring water were collected in three series: in July, August and October 2015. Water samples obtained from areas characterized by tree stand damage caused by heavy winds were found to have much higher mean concentration of nitrate (15.44 mg/L) as well as a much higher overall mean nitrate content (3.44% mval/L) than samples obtained from non−deforested areas (3.26 mg/L and 0.78% mval/L). The increase in nitrate concentration and its share in overall water chemistry was high enough that the anion sequence for the deforested areas became altered from HCO3>SO4>NO3>Cl to HCO3>NO3>SO4>Cl. The mean change in water nitrate concentration in areas with tree stands damaged by the bark beetle was smaller (6.17 mg/L; 1.60% mval/L) than that for areas deforested by wind. The concentration of NO3– in stream water in deforested areas varied more than that in stream water in non−deforested areas.