Boglárka Biró has been working as a forest engineer for the last 21 years in one of the largest and leading state-owned forest companies in Hungary. She has applied the practice of sustainable agriculture and forestry management both in her job and on her farm. In 1999, after graduating she founded her own nursery producing forest seedling. Every year, 200-300 thousand seedlings are sold which are used mainly for reforestation and afforestation. Boglárka decided to extend her business activities to crop production and today manages a 36ha farm with diverse activities.
The fields are also home to large red deer population.
Moreover, Boglárka tries to harmonise her land management approach with local conditions and thus diminish the conflict between crop production and wild game management. In order to do so, her crops are divided by grazing fields for the deer, and only protected by temporary fences which can be dismantled after harvest.
This means the habitats of the large herbivores are not reduced. In 2016 she took part in the AES programme, dividing her plots to a maximum of 5ha with pea strips and green fallows. Only bird-friendly reaping is applied,
and a nutrient supply plan is elaborated every year by specialists based on soil samples. She uses biofertilizer and if needed, semi-deep soil loosening is carried out, with no machinery used on wet soil. With an increase of private forestry in Hungary during the early 2000’s, Boglárka also started working as a forest consultant providing advice to new owners who often had no forestry education or experience. In 2005 she received her PhD in forestry, having written her thesis on the false heartwood beech, including an application of non-destructive timber test methods.
With cutting-edge technology the research team managed to be the first in Europe to detect false heartwood using MR (magnetic resonance) technology. She also taught forest ecology and management at the University of Kaposvar for 7 years. Boglárka uses her own experiences and management approach of continuous forestry cover, proving that forest management can be more secured by gradually reducing the area of final cuts and reforesting with mixed forests that are more resistant to damage. Through her management approaches Boglárka has been able to reduce the time of reforestation through a smaller harvest area, well thought-out species choices, application of propagation material of domestic
origin, and carefully chosen nursing operations in the vegetation period. As a result, the loss of quality and quantity in over matured forests can be avoided.
Due to the small-parcel structure and the common efforts with the hunting association, for the first time, even the maize and sunflower remained totally free of wild game damage this year.
