EN
The objective of the study was to determine the size of interest in spending leisure time in forests among the residents of the Podkarpackie Province (south−eastern Poland) and to examine recreational potential of Rzeszów suburban forests. At first, basing on surveys, the demand for leisure in forests among the adult residents of the Podkarpackie Province was assessed. The survey was conducted on the random group of 439 people. Then, the recreational potential of the suburban forests of Rzeszów was assessed using own method. Almost 90% of respondents declared that they spend leisure time in forests. Most of the them rest in forests several times a year (54%), while only 9% respondents does it several times a week. The largest group among people spending their free time in forests is willing to travel up to 20 km to get to a forest. Forests suitable for recreational use cover nearly 56% of the analysed area, Among them 29% are tree stands of high or very high usability. The decrease in usability for recreational purposes predominantly results from the large share of wet habitats and dense understory. The recreational capacity calculated for Rzeszów suburban forests located within 20 km of city administrative limits amount to 1.79 man−hour/ha/day. The presented results indicate that every week 435,000 people may stay in the Podkarpackie Province forests, while approximately 43,000 – in Rzeszów suburban forests. The paper shows that there is a huge interest in spending leisure time in forests among the residents of the Podkarpackie Province, while the calculated recreational potential of Rzeszów suburban forests may be exceeded. Therefore a real risk exists that the forest environment will be damaged, moreover Rzeszów suburban forests are still poorly equipped with recreational facilities. A type of activity that counteracts this disturbing phenomenon is adequate management of recreational traffic and its balanced distribution over the areas that are naturally resistant to damages. It is also necessary to limit recreational utilisation of the forests where the calculated recreational capacity equals 0. Moreover, one should strive to boost recreational capacity of forests by their proper management.