Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Silviculture in young stands in Sweden is below the mark concerning what has to be done in the forest, and it is time to solve the problem. The problem will not be solved only by the private forest owners, professional help is needed.

Skogsägarna Mellanskog is one of four forest unions in Sweden who wants to play a role and take responsibility for forestry in the middle of Sweden. This academic essay is based on a market survey sent to 350 forest owners in the Örebro district. 186 of them answered the questions, giving a response frequence of 53 percentage.

The purpose of the essay is to find the determining factors which will make a forest owner to find a collaborator when planning and carrying out the silviculture measures in young stands.

The result of the survey shows that the forest owners are anxious about the price and the costs. The costs have a severe effect if the silviculture measures in young stands will be carried out or not. Another important factor is the personal connection with a forest advicer. This person often has an extended knowledge about forestry and if the owner put a trust in such a person, measures will be taken. The forest advicer who is listening to the forest owner, giving advices and finding solutions, will make the quality most important and the costs less important. Forest owners who does not live on the property, is often inquiring a total solution for the silviculture measures in young stands. Through mutual efforts it is possible to change the negative prevailing trend in the silviculture measures in young stands showing bad pre commercial thinning result, returning to the thinning levels reached in times when pre-commercial thinning obligations still existed.
A well growing forest demands thoroughly planned silviculture measures.