Current issue: 58(5)
Silva Fennica issue 46 includes presentations held in professional development courses, arranged for foresters working in public administration in 1937. 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 clearing of felling areas.
Pine swamps are easily regenerated by natural regeneration of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). Usually seeding felling is used, but also strip system or clear cutting and regeneration along stand edge has been suggested. This article discusses the regeneration by clear cutting and sparing the existing undergrowth. The article focuses on pine swamps to be drained and the ones in natural state.
Pine swamps in natural state usually have plenty of trees of smaller diameter classes, that can be trusted to form the future tree generation after the felling. This shortens the rotation by 20-30 years. The undergrowth has been shown to recover quickly. The method suits for regeneration of drained peatlands but could fit also for regeneration of pine swamps in natural state.
The seedlings in the pine swamps are mainly 1-5 years old, and the stock is changing. It seems that larger trees produce a wider selection of age groups, but the seedlings survive longer under smaller mother trees. Part of the younger generations of seedlings seem to be destroyed when the peatland is drained. Further studies are needed to investigate how the draining and felling are to be performed to spare the young seedlings.
The Acta Forestalia Fennica issue 61 was published in honour of professor Eino Saari’s 60th birthday.
The PDF includes a summary in German.
There are contrary opinions on the ability of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seedlings to withstand oppression by hold-overs and recover after their felling. The recovery potential of oppressed pine stands in Southern and Northern Finland was studied using two kinds of material, fully recovered Scots pine stands and stands recently released. The volume and volume increment of the stand were measured, and the health of the sample trees was determined.
The study showed that those released pine stands that had been in oppressed state very long (25-60 years) had recovered after clear-cutting. After the release the stands grew at first slowly, but after recovery at about the same rate as natural normal stands of a similar height. The smaller, younger, and less stunted the seedlings were when they were released, and the better the site, the faster was the recovery. At the base of released pine stands various defects was detected. When the trees were released, the defects decrease their technical value. A heavy partial cutting had generally a disadvantageous effect on the stand. Recovering seedlings were found clearly to hinder the development of younger seedlings nearby. This inhibition seemed to be a result of the rapid spread of the root system of released pine trees.
The PDF includes a summary in English.
Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) invading sites is common in Finland. The species tends to establish itself as undergrowth, and takes over when it gets space to grow. To determine whether the undergrowth is suitable as the new generation requires knowledge on the biology of spruce undergrowth. One of the issues is determining the age of the stunted trees. In this investigation, 100 undergrown spruce trees, their crown and their root systems were studied. A method was developed to determine the age of the trees.
The root system of all trees in Vaccinium sites and of stunted trees in Myrtillius sites were superficial. The root systems of older spruces were purely of adventitious origin. The longer the period of stunting growth, the younger is the root system. In addition to acropetal and general adventitious ramification there is often adventitious branching of the roots of pathological causes. Mortality among the long roots is frequent.
A stunted tree has not the same ability as a viable tree to make use of already existing branches for building assimilating surface. When comparing trees with equally large assimilating surface, a stunted tree had greater sum of roots compared to a viable tree. The root system of a stunted undergrown spruce was very superficial compared with the other trees.
The PDF includes a summary in English.
Shifting cultivation, practiced earlier in Finland, was beneficial for grey alder (Alnus incana (L.) Moench). It can produce seeds early and the early growth of the seedlings is fast. Areas where shifting cultivation was intensive, the areas next to the fields were pure alder stands, next circle was Betula sp. dominated, beyond that could be found Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), and finally Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.). When shifting cultivation ended, Norway spruce became more common. Many young mixed stands had Norway spruce undergrowth and alder overgrowth. The aim of the study was to find out how the stands develop to spruce dominated stands, and how they should be managed.
The density of spruce undergrowth affects the further development of both spruce and alder. The number of alder stems decreases the faster the denser the spruce undergrowth is. Alder overgrowth slow down the early diameter and height growth of spruce compared to pure stands. Also the diameter and height growth of alder remains smaller in mixed stands. The basal area of spruce develops slowly in the beginning, increases significantly by the age of 30, and surpasses the growth of pure spruce stands in Oxalis-Myrtillus site type. Thus, Norway spruce do not suffer from growing in the undergrowth. In the first years, fast growing alder seedlings limits growth of ground vegetation and protects spruce seedlings from frost. Later thinning or removal of alder benefits spruce growth. The density of spruce undergrowth decides how much alder can be leaved in the stand. If the spruce undergrowth is thin, more alder can be left in the stand.
The PDF includes a summary in German.
The abundance of Norway spruce (Picae abies (L.) H. Karst.) undergrowth is common for the state forests in Karelia near the Russian border, in Finland. In the survey, the occurrence of the undergrowth was studied. The article includes a review on the ownership of the forest, forest soils in the area, and the state of forests in the area. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is the dominative species in 67%, Norway spruce in 27% and Betula sp. 6% of the state forests. Only 2% of the forests are 1‒20 years of age. Stands in the age group of 61‒80 years are the most common (25%). Norway spruce undergrowth is most abundant in the municipality of Salmi. The forests are typically moist forest site types or grass-herb site types. If the stands are allowed to develop naturally, even the Vaccinium sites become Norway spruce dominated. Spruce undergrowth is formed seldom under a spruce forest unless the stand is thin or has openings. Because Norway spruce is often rare in the mineral soil sites, the undergrowth is often regenerated from seeds that spread from spruce swamps. Earlier practiced shifting cultivation and its frequent fires prevented regeneration of spruce undergrowth. Similarly, the common felling method used, clear felling in strips, does not promote spruce undergrowth. Consequently, their occurrence is likely to decrease in the future.
The PDF includes a summary in German.