The first part of the article presents an overview of peatlands and their classification on the basis of e.g. their nutrient content in Finland. The second part (a separate pdf file) represents the different types of peatland with their indicator plants in Finland.
Peatlands can be classified in several ways, depending on the purpose of the classification. There are also differences whether an area is considered biologically or geographically as a peatland. For agricultural or forestry purposes the peatlands can be classified on the basis of their nutrient content.
Article also discusses the three ways of emergence of peatlands and the variations of water relations of peatlands.
The study area is state owned forest of Vesijako in southern middle Finland that has earlier been intensively managed with slash-and-burn agriculture and then partly reforested with foreign coniferous tree species after controlled burnings. The total area planted with foreign species consists of 66 sample areas, altogether 28 hectares. The data has been collected in summer 1909.
The most of studied sample areas have been unsuccessful, but there are still many areas that are too young to be assessed. The originally with foreign species reforested areas are now pine stands. The tree species in experiments have been e.g. larch (Larix sibirica and L. europaea), Siberian stone pine (Pinus cembra sibirica), Siberian fir (Abies sibirica o. pichta), balsam fir (Abies balsamea), white fir (Abies pectinate also Abies alba), white spruce (Picea alba also Picea glauca), Weymouth pinen (Pinus strobus) and European / Swiss mountain pine (Pinus montana also P. mugo, P. mugho).
The most important result of the experiments with controlled burning is that stand of grey alder (Alnus incana) with only low economic value can be effectively altered into coniferous forests (Pinus silvestris).The study area is state owned forest of Vesijako in southern middle Finland that has earlier been intensively managed with slash-and-burn agriculture. Reforestation of broad-leaved forests into coniferous forest with controlled burning has been studied on 76 sample plots.
The article describes the practice of leasing forest stands to leaseholders who executed the controlled burning and forest regeneration and management according a leasing contract. The results of the reforestation with coniferous trees shows that sowed pine (Pinus silvestris) stands give good results but spruce (Picea abies) must be planted as a seedling. For the state this method of forest improvement is cost effective and should be used more widely.