The second largest form of land use in Poland are forests. In 1994 forests occupied 8,720,000 ha, which amounted to 27.89% of Poland. The distribution of forests in Poland is very uneven. The greatest number of forests exist in the western and northwestern part of the country. Here the densest forest complexes are located. Among them are Bory Dolnoslaskie whose acreage is over 151,000 ha, the Puszcza (Primeval Forest) Rzepinska near the middle section of the Oder river, the Puszcza Nadnotecka (120,000 ha), and large forest complexes in the valleys of the Drawa and Gwda rivers in the Pila voivodship.

In the northern part of the country the largest compact forest area is Bory Tucholskie, covering about 120,000 ha. Forest complexes near the border of Lithuania and Byelorussia are a relict of former great forest areas. They are the Puszcza Augustowska (107,000 ha), Puszcza Piska (about 100,000 ha), Puszcza Knyszynska (58,000 ha), Puszcza Bialowieska, whose area on the territory of Poland measures 58,000 ha.

The central part of Poland lacks major forest complexes. Forests that are called Puszcza (Primeval Forest) such as the Puszcza Kampinoska and Puszcza Kozienicka, are forest complexes that do not stand out on the land use map. Unfortunately, they are small forest remnants that covered the unfertile soils in this part of the country for a long time.

In the highland part of Poland, forest complexes on the Rownina Opolska (Bory Stobrawskie) and the Puszcza Swietokrzyska stand out because of their size and density.The second largest dense forest complex in Poland is the Puszcza Solska, which measures about 124,000 ha. It grows on the Rownina Bilgorajska. The forest of the Puszcza Sandomierska, which borders the Puszcza Solska from the west and measures about 110,000 ha, is only a small remnant of the former forest in the fork of the Vistula and San rivers.

The last of all large forest complexes exist in the mountains, particularly in the Carpathian Mountains where natural spruce coniferous forests were preserved. They are known as upper subalpine forests or the Carpathian coniferous forest.

Almost 78% of forests, that is 8,720,000 ha, is covered by coniferous forest (Polish name – Bory). This predominance of coniferous forests are especially visible on the lowlands, although it is also the case in the highlands and upper parts of the mountains. This dominance is connected with the existence of the poorest habitats unsuitable for cultivation.
Deciduous forests occupy over 1,924,000 ha (over 22% of forests). They exist in larger complexes near Szczecin (Puszcza Bukowa), in Puszcza Knyszynska and Bialowieska and in the Eastern Carpathian mountains.

It is worth stressing that forests are the form of land use whose total acreage has grown since the end of World War II (See graph). This is connected with reforestation of the weakest farmland. In 1945, the total acreage of forests in Poland measured 6,400,000 ha (20% of Poland), coniferous forests occupied 5,629,000 ha (89.9%), and deciduous forests 841,000 ha (13%). In 1990, the total acreage of forests increased by 2,224,000 ha, which is a growth of 34.37%. This increase was only 20% for coniferous forests while the acreage of deciduous forests grew 228.8% to 1,924,000 ha (in 1994). These numbers clearly show a significant change in the species composition of forest stands. To a large extent this is caused by the necessity to introduce species which are more resistant to poorer environmental conditions, especially air pollution. Many forests in Poland are younger than 40 years (I and II age classes).

Recently, high resolution satellite photographs which allow the recognition of objects larger than 100 m² became available. They reveal that many areas in great forest complexes are totally devastated because of huge military training grounds located there. For many years this terrain was counted as forest in official statistics, although there were no trees left. Now it will require a lot of effort to reforest these grounds.

Satellite photographs also reveal that some forest complexes were too intensively exploited. On the photographs these complexes look like a mosaic, where the areas of forests and pieces of clear cut land lie one after the other. In some cases the acreage of the logged area is almost equal to the area occupied by trees.

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