The paper presents the scope of orthophotomap usage during forest management works within drawing up of the conservation plan of the Karkonoski National Park. The works have been conducted in years 2000-2002, mainly by Bureau of Forest Management in Brzeg. Orthophotomap (resolution of terrain pixel – 36 cm) has been created on the basis of (B/W, natural colour lub IRC) aerial photographs acquired (taken) in 2001. The map has covered the area of Karkonoski National Park and its protection zone. The orthophotomap has been used mainly for three groups of tasks. The first group of tasks has been concerned with correction and determination of borderlines: correction of coordinates of geodetic division (except for points stabilized by geodetic stones); correction of forest subcompartment borderlines; correction of borderlines of areas between forest and non-forest grounds (mainly ski trails and ski lifts). Correction of potential range of plant communities has been carried out, and plant communities above upper borderline of forests have been mapped. Routes of lineal items (roads, paths, streams) have been also verified. The second group of tasks has been related to orthophotomap use for forest inventory; mainly for inventory of the areas covered by dead standing and dead lying wood; inventory of intermixtures of tree species in upper layers of stand; appointing of intermixture forms; defoliation and degree of tree-crowns damages. Within the third group of tasks, the position of regular sample areas on the orthophotomap (necessary for planned measurements and estimations) has been fixed. Orthophotomap is very useful for forest management works because the possibilities that it gives exceed costs borne for its preparation. Use of orthophotomap allows to shorten the terrain works, to abandon some of measurements (especially geodetic ones) and to apply remote-sensing and photogrametric analyses.

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