The aim of the conducted study was to research the importance of the character of forest – in terms of its species composition and age of the tree stand – for the people spending their leisure time in forests managed by the State Forests National Forest Holding (7.1 mil. ha or 77%). The study employed the technique of individual questionnaire interview which was conducted with 672 adult respondents, selected with the stratified and quota sampling method (representative sample). The obtained results of the study show that for the majority of the population the important factors include both the species composition of tree stand (76% of respondents) and their age (69% of respondents). The various options of species composition were indicated, as preferred, with the following frequencies: ‘coniferous forests’ – 13.5% of respondents, ‘mixed forests with a predominance of conifers’ – 15.8%, ‘mixed with equal share of conifers and deciduous trees’ – 15.3%, ‘mixed with a predominance of deciduous trees’ – 16.1%, ‘deciduous forests’ – 15.3%. In terms of forest age, there is a very clear preference for ‘older’ forests than ‘younger’ ones (63.8% vs. 5.1%). As part of the study examining the impact of respondents’ social characteristics and the amount of time spent by them on forest recreation on their preferred forest appearance, a number of statistically significant differences were identified (much more in terms of preferred species composition). An integral part of the article are considerations about the possibility of fulfilling, in the future, the social expectations regarding the desirable characteristics of forests – in the context of anticipated climate and demographic changes. The predicted demographic changes, which will involve mostly the ageing of the Polish society, will probably lead to growing importance of conifers and decrease of the importance of deciduous trees. However, it should be expected that it would not be possible to fulfill, in the general sense, the potential wishes (landscape preferences) of people spending their leisure time in forests. This results from the fact that the climate change, affecting the natural ranges (climatic optimum) of various trees (both coniferous and deciduous), will lead to an increased proportion of deciduous trees in Polish forests. Simultaneously, if people will spend more time on forest recreation or if the proportion of population living in larger cities grows, the relevance of both the species composition and the age of forests will probably decline. Finally, the issue whether the appearance of forests is consistent (in general) with landscape preferences of the population cannot be deemed a priority – in the face of adverse climate change, forest stability is crucial for the continued fulfillment of many function of forests.

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