Current issue: 58(4)
The Finnish forest industries have doubled their use of wood raw material during the past two decades. The average annual overcut of 4.0 million m3 in 1960–64 has been turned into an average annual surplus of 2.7 million m3 in 1965–69. By 1974 industry’s requirements for domestic roundwood would increase by about 6.3 million m3, if all new capacity can be taken into full production. The MERA allowable cut, if realized, would leave a 1.5 million m3 annual surplus in the forest balance in 1974. Less intensive forestry programs would mean a 1.5 to 4.4 million m3 overcut in 1974.
The PDF includes a summary in English.
In addition to the research carried out by the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry of the University of Helsinki, the Forest Research Institute, and the State Committee for Agriculture and Forestry, applied forest research is performed in Finland by the Forest department of the Work Efficiency Association, Metsäteho, the Forest Work Study Section of the Central Association of Finnish Woodworking Industries, the Logging Technical Office of the State Board of Forestry (today the Development Section of the Organization Bureau), and Uittoteho, research body for floating questions in Northern Finland.
These establishments are concerned chiefly with the development of and experimentation with working methods, tools and machines in wood harvesting and with the analysis of wage and payment bases for timber preparation and haulage jobs.
An endeavour has been made to coordinate the forest technological research in these institutes and the University of Helsinki and the Forest Research Institute. Each institute is presented in a cooperation organ formed by the Society of Forestry in Finland. This organ also functions as the Finnish section of Nordiska Skogsarbetsstudiernas Råd (NSR). These bodies agree about the division of the research tasks and discuss the research programmes jointly.
In addition, some foundations give notable support to forest research, in particular the Foundation for Forest Tree Breeding, Foundation for Research of Natural Resources in Finland, and SITRA, the Fund for the Jubilee Year 1967 of Finland’s Independence.
The PDF includes a summary in English.
Silva Fennica Issue 92 includes presentations held in 1956 in the 8th professional development courses, arranged for forest officers working in the Forest Service. The presentations focus on practical issues in forest management and administration, especially in regional level. The education was arranged by Forest Service.
This presentation concerns the evaluation of forest land to be surrendered for a settlement farm. According to the Settlement Act, state land surrendered for settlement purposes should fetch the price that any sensible buyer would pay in buying the land. The prices used in evaluation are, however, still the prices of 1944. A new method for calculating the yield in terms of value of forest land has been developed by professor Yrjö Ilvessalo, based on the König-Faustman formula. This method is described in Tapio Forestry Manual.
Silva Fennica Issue 69 includes presentations held in 1948-1950 in the fourth professional development courses, arranged for foresters working in the Forest Service. The presentations focus on practical issues in forest management and administration, especially in regional level. The education was arranged by Forest Service.
This presentation describes the development of aerial mapping, its principles and methods. The use of aerial photographs and the costs of the method is discussed.
Two lines can be defined in the management planning for the State Forests of Finland: 1) general planning for regions and inspectional sub-regions based on forest inventory, and 2) management plans for individual districts based on the revision of each district after 10–15 years. Long-term planning is has recently been alleviated by several new methods, such as stock-development forecast and yield tables.
A stock-development forecast and cutting budget were prepared separately for each State Forest region. The present growing stock was based on the data collected in the inventory in 1951–1955. Desirable stock for each region was calculated. The methods to calculate total cut during near future, allowable cut, allowable cut by timber products, the long-term development of the allowable cut, and conditions for realizing the allowable cut are presented in the paper.
The development of the growing stock towards a desirable condition requires also realization of a silvicultural program. Because the Finnish forest industry is expanding vigorously, the amount of the allowable cut on a sustained basis must be estimated carefully. Otherwise the demand for wood may exceed the supply. Though there are many sources of error in preparing a long-term cutting budget, it was considered necessary for State Forestry. An approximate estimate of the largest cut on a sustained basis and a program of silvicultural measures necessary to increase the yield gradually has been worked out.
The PDF includes a summary in English.
The distances between the lines in the line survey in the first two National Inventories of Finland were too long to supply data for every State Forest district. Consequently, the Third National Forest Inventory offered an opportunity to supplement the inventory for State Forests in 1954 and 1955, and to gather data on forest resources of the State Fforests. On the basis of the results, a management plan for the State Forests was drafted. The first part of the paper describes the inventory procedure and results of the inventory, the second deduces future cuttings and a forest management programme.
In 1955 the total land area of the State Forests was 9.49 million ha. Drained peatlands cover 126,000 ha, drainable peatlands 798,000 ha and undrainable peatlands 2,621,000 ha. The average volume of growing stock in all State Forests was 55.2 m3/ha, including productive and unproductive forest land. The average increment in all State Forests was 1,39 m3/ha on productive land and in all lands in average 1,14 m3/ha.
Cutting budgets for the progressive yield were prepared by checking the silvicultural cut and estimating the allowable cut. They were made by age classes, developmental stages and for each region. The stock development was forecasted for a period of 40 years. In average the allowable cut was larger during the first decade than during the second. Allowable cut was estimated by the tree species and by timber assortments. The management plan included future forest management work, such as intermediate fellings, regeneration fellings, site preparation, artificial regenereation, tending of seedling stands, and draining of peatland.
The PDF includes a summary in English.
The aim of the investigation was to study the effect of size of a forest holding to its forest resources or state and quality of the forests. The data was collected in the second national forest inventory in Finland, carried out in 1936-1938. The study focuses on farms in two areas in Southern Finland: provinces of Pohjois-Häme and Satakunta, and provinces of Uusimaa and Kaakkois-Häme.
In 1938 about 53% of forests in Finland were owned by private forest holdings, the sizes of which varied from under 5 ha to over 1,000 ha. About 75 % of the holdings were under 50 ha. After 1918 the number of private forest holdings increased markedly, mainly due to settlement and tenant farmers gaining ownership to their farms.
The smaller the forest holdings were, the poorer was the silvicultural state of the forests and the smaller the standing stock. When the area of the forest holding increases, also the volume of the standing stock per hectare, the number of timber-trees, and average size of the timber trees increases. This is due to larger proportion of older age-classes and somewhat better forest management. Fellings have usually been stronger in the smaller forest holdings. The poor state of the forests originates often from use of the forests before the present ownership, such as slash and burn culture, grazing and cutting wood for household use. To improve the state of the forests, education and forest improvement practices are needed.
The PDF includes a summary in German.
The Second World War revealed some weaknesses that affect also peacetime planning of military defence in Finland. One of the shortages were lack of maps applicable in military purposes in Northern Finland.
The state forests are mainly situated in the north. Consequently, cartographic material of Finnish Forest Service may be modified with little extra work for military purposes. Best suited for the purpose are forestry maps of different forest districts that have scales ranging from 1:20,000 to 1:100,000. In addition, general maps in the scale of 1:100,000 or 1:200,000 are available. The article discusses further the additions that can be made in the maps.
The PDF includes a summary in German.
According to the 1st national forest inventory of Finland, municipalities owned 178,000 hectares of forests in 1922, about 0.7% of the total forest area of the country. Only 60,000 hectares of these belonged to urban municipalities. The amount had increased to 73,000 hectares by 1938. Although the area was small, forests were important for municipal economy. The aim of this study was to investigate the state and forest management practices of forests in urban municipalities. The data was collected mainly by interviewing the authorities of the municipalities in 1936-1938.
Forests covered 50-80% of the area of the urban municipalities, the total area varying from 111 hectares to 7,791 hectares. Only four municipalities owned more than 5,000 hectares of forests. Annual profit of forestry in all urban municipalities totalled about 4.6 million Finnish marks in 1931-1935. Quality of productive forest lands was relatively good, but the volume and growth of the forests rather low. The silvicultural state of the forests could be improved. The article points out that this requires continuous planning. The basis of this is forest management plan, which has been demanded of municipal forests since 1893. However, some of the urban municipalities still lacked a forest management plan, or it was not fully used in forest management.
The PDF includes a summary in German.