About the department

The Faculty of Forestry of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Warsaw refers with its traditions to the Special Forestry School established in 1816. It was the first in Poland – and one of the first in the world – forest university of an academic nature. In 1832, as part of the repressions after the November Uprising, the tsarist invader closed the School. From 1816, there was also the Agronomic Institute in Marymont, where in 1840 the Forest Division was established and the institute itself was renamed the Institute of Rural Economy and Forestry. The Institute conducted education on two levels: higher for future economists and managers, as well as sons of landowners, and elementary – for future qualified workers. In 1869, the Institute was transferred to Puławy as a result of repression for the patriotic attitudes of the learning youth, and in 1914, at the beginning of World War I, evacuated to Kharkiv by order of the tsarist authorities.

As early as 1907, during the convention of the Galician (Polish) Forest Society, the need for a forest university was raised, which should be located in Warsaw and continue the noble tradition of the Special Forestry School and Institute in Marymont, still operating in Puławy, but with a limited possibility of educating Poles. The Russian administrative authorities did not agree to the creation of a higher forestry university in Kongresówka. Only after nine years of efforts, already during World War I, permission was obtained to open, from September 1916, the Higher Forest Courses at the Society for Scientific Courses. Classes were held at the Museum of Industry and Agriculture (now the building of the Central Agricultural Library at ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 66) and at the School of Mechanics and Technology of the time, funded by the financiers Hipolit Wawelberg and Stanisław Rotwand at ul. Mokotowska 4/6. Activities

led by, among others: Stefan Biedrzycki, Władysław Jedliński, Edmund Malinowski, Franciszek Staff, Józef Trzebiński – future professors of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences and: Ryszard Błędowski, Józef Czaplicki, Adam Czartkowski, Jan Kloska, Władysław Michalski, Leon Makarewicz, Sławomir Miklaszewski, Józef Rosiński, Władysław Smosarski.

After regaining independence, the Society for Scientific Courses is transformed into the Royal Polish University of Life Sciences. A year later, the University is nationalized and named the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW). Initially, it consisted of two faculties: Agriculture and Forestry. The Scientific Council of Higher Forest Courses decided to liquidate them gradually in 1920. Students who passed the transitional exam were admitted to the second year of the Faculty of Forestry at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Ryszard Biehler, as the main organizer of the Faculty of Forestry of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, and previously the director of the Higher Forest Courses, became the first dean of this institution of higher forest education. By the decree of the Chief of State of March 13, 1919. he was appointed full professor of forestry at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A big problem of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Forestry was the lack of premises to conduct lectures and classes. Some employees had classes in the municipal building at ul. Miodowa 23, others in the palace settlement in Skierniewice. In 1922 a post-factory outbuilding was obtained in a house at ul. Hoża 74, and after the liquidation in 1924 Of the Secondary Forest School, some classes were also held at pl. Of the Three Crosses No. 8. By the will of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, the University in 1923 received an 11-hectare area of land in Pole Mokotowskie, and then funds for the construction of a school on Rakowiecka Street. The so-called Pavilion I was put into use in 1929 and part of the Faculty of Forestry plants was moved to it, although the greater part of the Faculty still remained at ul. Miodowa. Own rooms were obtained only shortly before World War II, in a new building built at ul. Rakowiecka, thanks to the efforts of Rector Jan Miklaszewski. During the Second World War, WULS-SGGW was closed by the occupiers, and German troops were stationed within its walls. During the period of secret teaching, education continued, and diplomas were issued. After the end of the war, WULS-SGGW was the first university in Warsaw to inaugurate the academic year. It was May 15, 1945.

In 1956, in exchange for the lands of the property in Skierniewice and part of Pole Mokotowski, the university, by the decision of the Council of Ministers and the authorities of Warsaw, received land in Ursynów along with neighboring farms in Wolica, Natolin and Wilanów. The expansion of SGGW in the new location began in the 1960s. In 1989 the seat of the University authorities was moved to the Ursynowski Palace. Since 2003 all faculties, including the Faculty of Forestry, were moved to Ursynów. The campus was given the name Edward hr. Raczyński, who, being the heir of the Krasiński family, donated this area to the Polish state for educational purposes.

In 1919, a field teaching and field base of the Faculty in Rogów was also established. Pursuant to the ordinance of the Ministry of Agriculture and Public Goods of July 15, 1919, WULS-SGGW took over the management of the forest inspectorate in Skierniewice. Pursuant to the resolution of the Council of Ministers of January 1, 1955, the forests managed by the School were excluded from the Ministry of Forestry and transferred to the Ministry of Higher Education for research and teaching purposes of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. They received the name “Experimental Forests of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences”, and their final organizational and legal form was obtained by order of the Ministers of Higher Education and Finance of February 12, 1960. Currently, the Forest Experimental Station in Rogów creates the right conditions for scientific and research work to be carried out by the University’s researchers and is a place of practice and field exercises for students of the following faculties: forestry, environmental protection, spatial management and biology.

Currently, the Faculty of Forestry of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences offers studies in the field of “forestry” at all levels of education in accordance with the Bologna Declaration and the education standards of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. These are: 3.5-year first-cycle (engineering) studies in full-time mode, 4-year

part-time first-cycle (engineering) studies, full-time 1.5-year second-cycle (master’s) studies, 2-year second-cycle (master’s) studies specializing in “Forest Information Technology” conducted in English together with the Faculty of Forest and Environment at the University of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde (Germany) in full-time mode, 2-year second-cycle (master’s) studies in part-time mode. The field of “forestry” has been positively assessed by the State Accreditation Committee.

From the academic year 2012/2013 at the Faculty of Forestry, under the order of the Rector of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences and the agreement of the deans of the Faculty of Forestry, the Faculty of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Faculty of Economic Sciences, the interdepartmental course “spatial management” is being conducted. These are 3.5-year full-time and 4-year part-time first-cycle studies (engineering) as well as 1.5-year full-time and 2-year part-time second-cycle studies (master’s). The direction of “spatial management” has been positively assessed by the Polish Accreditation Committee.

In addition, the Faculty offers 4-year full-time and part-time doctoral studies and postgraduate studies (“Application of Spatial Information Systems in Forestry and Nature Protection”, “Sustainable use of forest areas in regional development” and “Supervision and management of private forests”). In total, about 1,500 people study at all types of studies. Faculty staff also conduct classes in other fields of study, run by various faculties.

The staff of the Faculty of Forestry are academic teachers who teach mainly in the field of forestry and research related to the didactic process. The Faculty employs (as of January 1, 2014) 80 full-time research and teaching staff, including: 11 with the academic title of professor, 18 with the academic degree of habilitated doctor, 49 with the academic degree of doctor and 2 with the academic title of professor. with the professional title of master’s degree. Moreover, the activities of the Faculty are supported by 20 technical and 8 administrative employees.

The Faculty is authorized to confer doctoral and postdoctoral degrees in forestry sciences, the discipline of forestry and the title of professor of forest sciences. As a result of the parameterization carried out in 2010, the Faculty of Forestry was classified in the 1st category of scientific units.

(Excerpts from the article by Prof. Andrzej Grzywacz “How the Forest Faculty of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences was created” in Las Polski and internet materials of WL and SGGW were used)