After adopting Functional Planning approach in Turkey, “participatory approach process” and “social dimension” were added to preparation process of forest management planning. But, answers are needed on how participants’ needs and expectations can be taken into account and quantified, and which methods, tools and mathematical formulation can integrate participants’ opinions to the decision making process. It was provided solutions to overcome the problem of the measurement of the stakeholders’ preferences, needs and expectations, and involve all stakeholders to planning process with using of different Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) Techniques in two phases in this research.

The scope of this study is toreveal the habitat preferences of the Otter in Abant Lake, Bolu. Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra Linnaeus, 1758) species in Turkey is in the IUCN Red List based on NT (Near Threatened) category, and it’s protected in all countries where it spreads throughout the world. To achieve the success of conservation efforts, information about the species must be at a sufficient level. With the aim of determining the preferred habitats of the Otters, riperian habitats used by the species in the study area between the Abant Lake and the road surrounding the the lake were investigated. Reeds and bushs at the side of the lake were preferred habitats more than the other areas by the Otter.

This study, supported by the Southern Forestry Research Institute (Elazig) of the General Directorate of Forestry (GDF) with project number 24.4101, has been performed in oak forests of Gözeli village, Sivrice county, Elazig Province within the areas of the Elazig Regional Forestry Directorate between 2009 to 2013 years, aimed at finding out the bird species and their breeding activities in the nest-boxes with different sizes, colors and positioned at different slopes placed by the research team. Within the all successful breeding birds only Scops Owl (Otus scops) has preferred big sized nest-boxes, whereas other species has used both small and big nest-boxes. The most preferred size of each species is as, Great tit (Parus major) used 66,4% and Rock sparrow (Petronia petronia) used 15,2% of all small nest-boxes, Blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) used 16,3%, Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) used 23,2%, House sparrow (Passer domesticus) used 27,9% and Otus scops used 7% of all the big nest-boxes. Nest-boxes positioned at different slopes were preferred by different bird species at different slopes. In big nest-boxes south (39,5%), east (34,9%), north (16,3%) and west (9,3%); in small nest-boxes south (33,2%), east (27,2%), west (20,8%) and north (18,8%) was most preferred, respectively. Preference of different colored nest-boxes was different among species. In big nestboxes Parus major has referred the green, Cyanistes caeruleus has preferred the yellow, Sitta europaea has preferred the orange, Petronia petronia has preferred the yellow and blue, Passer domesticus has preferred yellow, blue and unpainted nest-boxes, mostly. It has been find out that nest-boxes’ sizes, colors and positions at slopes has differed in selection of nest-boxes among the bird species. At the sites with high density of a species, there should be mostly the most preferred nest-boxes in size and colors should be positioned at the location to increase the breeding bird numbers and to be more efficient in biological controls of forests.

Various planting materials (cutting, rooted and rootless saplings) are used in poplar plantations. In the study, the usage of these materials was evaluated in terms of technical. For this purpose, an experimental area was established with different planting material for Samsun (77/51) and I-214 hybrid poplar clones in the Izmit Forest Nursery. As a result, it was determined that no difference between planting materials for survival rate and growth (d1.30, height) performances at the end of 2-3 years between planting materials.

This study was conducted on one-year-old poplar saplings. In this study, I-214, I-77/51 (Samsun) and S.307/26 (Izmit) clones which are produced widely in the Marmara region were used. The amount of the annual defoliation of these clones, and thus plant nutrients given to the soil were detected. Fresh and oven-dry weights of the leaves and plant nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg and Na elements) in leaves were determined. The results showed that the concentrations of plant nutrients in the leaves were in the order as I-77/51 (Samsun) > S.307/26 (Izmit) > I-214. In terms of level of plant nutrient concentrations, nitrogen level is the highest and sodium level is the lowest in the leaves. Plant nutrients in the leaves were as N > Ca > K > Mg > P > Na form, respectively.

Scientific researches about economic valuation of environmental resources, goods and services have spread all over the world since 1980, especially in the developed countries. In this context, many studies on estimating economic values of scenic beauty of forest resources, especially of urban forests, have been realized due to lack of information involved in sustainable forest resource management and effective resource allocation. There was no published study to estimate economic value of scenic beauty of forests, especially urban forests in Turkey, while many environmental valuation researches on forest goods and services were reported. This study aimed to estimate economic values for scenic beauty of the Middle East Technical University (METU) Forest in city center of Ankara by using hedonic pricing method. The economic values of scenic beauty of the METU Forest are estimated as 15.535-23.315 TL per dwelling, 8-12 million TL per year and totally 101-151 million TL for target housing market. The results show that the scenic beauty of the METU Forest is an appreciated characteristic and its aesthetic benefits are capitalized in the property prices.

In this study, the relations among annual diameter increment, nut yield and climatic events have been investigated in stone pine stands in Kozak Watershed.Annual diameter increments for years between 2006-2011, climatic data and nut yield of sample trees have been used to demonsrate these relations. According to the results it is not determined any significant relation between nut yield and annual diameter increment. But there are some relations between climatic events and nut yield. Determination coefficents especially between yield of nut with shells and precipiation amount of one year ago and two years ago are R2=0,81 and R2=0,79 respectively. It is guessed that nut yield is more dependent to climatic events occured during one year old conelet growing period rather than mature cone period.