INTENSITY OF CHESTNUT DRYING AND NATURAL RESTORATION OF FOREST IN KEDA MUNICIPALITY (AJARA, GEORGIA)

Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa, Mill.) is one of the major and most common trees in natural forests. The last few decades have been marked with the intensive drying process of the chestnut throughout the world in general and Georgia in particular. The main reason of the chestnut drying in Georgia as well as in Europe and America is the fungus causing the chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica or Endothia parasitica), certainly linked to other abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic factors. The aim of the research was to study how intensively the trees are drying and the condition of the natural restoration of the chestnut forests in Keda Municipality (Ajara, Georgia). The field trips employed the methods of traditional route walk, expedition/excursion, and visual recognition common for the forest typology. The pathological condition of the diseased chestnut stands have been evaluated with the methods recognized in the forest pathology. According to the research, it was identified that phytopathological conditions of the chestnut groves is strictly unsatisfying; at the research area (9 600 m²) intensive dying process was fixed; here 24.4 % of chestnut trees (total 164) are healthy, 36.6 are in the dying process and 39.02% overdrided. The natural restoration process of the chestnut is hindered because of solid covering shelter of the dead residuals of plants, intensive development of evergreen sub-forest as well as factors of anthropogenic impact.