The production of charcoal has been involved in the Bieszczady Mountains for centuries. The characteristic fumes over the Carpathian forest can also be seen in the vicinity of Cisna today. People who work hard to obtain charcoal, turpentine, grease and tar are slowly becoming a legend in Bieszczady ...
The coal burning process in Bieszczady retorts is performed in the open air, vertical retorts are used. These are cylinders placed upright, made of approx. 1 cm thick sheet metal, approx. 3 m in diameter and height, and vaulted with a tin dome. Today's retorts are equipped with filters that partially eliminate harmful sulfur compounds.
Loading of the retort with wood takes place through a metal door. A single charge is about 12 meters of properly chopped wood. The carbon yield is about 50% of the input weight. The temperature inside the retort is around 800 degrees C.
Due to the fact that the occupation of burning wood for coal in the Bieszczady is disappearing, it comes to Poland with much lower quality but cheaper charcoal from Ukraine.
Smoking retorts are still a characteristic view of the Bieszczady Mountains. Due to the raw material base in the form of large resources of beech wood, charcoal burning has a long tradition here. However, economic factors are gradually leading to the closure of further firings in our area. The scale of the elimination of burnouts in the Bieszczady Mountains is quoted in "Głos Las" in the June 2013 issue. According to foresters, 14 years earlier, there were 43 firing companies operating in RDLP Krosno (Bieszczady, Beskid Niski, Pogórze) with 467 active retorts. 8 years later - in July 2008, 37 firings with 178 retorts were already active in the Bieszczady forest districts. The latest data collected by Eng. Jan Misiewicz from the Faculty of Wood Technology of the Institute of Life Sciences in Poznań say that in 2012 only 12 firings with 80 retorts were active in the Bieszczady Mountains. Most of them are located in the forest districts of Lesko, Baligród and Cisna .
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