Investigating the oak trees dieback in the northern and southern aspects of Baneh forests, Iran

One of the environmental problems of Zagros forests is oak decline, which is less intense in northern Zagros than in middle and southern Zagros. The purpose of this study was to investigate the oak decline in Baneh County (Kurdistan Province) in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. In order to carry out this research, two plots (with 100 trees) were considered in Belveh (tree dieback–southern slope) and Saraki (tree dieback–northern slope) sites in Baneh County in the northwest of Kurdistan Province. In 2019, oak trees were numbered at the desired sites, and in October 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, oak decline classes (five classes) were recorded for each tree. The results showed that the number of healthy trees in the Saraki and Belveh sites decreased by 25 and 28 trees, respectively, from 2019 to 2022; in contrast, the number of dieback trees increased by 14 and 19 trees, respectively, and the intensity of oak decline was greater in the Belveh site (southern dieback stands) than in Saraki (northern dieback stands). In general, the decline rate in the southern stands was higher than that in the northern stands, and the highest oak decline was observed in the southern slope. To optimally manage these forests, it is necessary to manage the factors that exacerbate oak decline and to control human interference and forest destruction so that the current situation is fixed and the seeds of healthy stands on the northern slopes are used for the regeneration and development of the forest.