Silviculture costs €211m in 2017

Total costs of silviculture were EUR 211 million in 2017, according to the statistics of Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

The amount is slightly higher than that in the previous year. Of all work types, pre-commercial thinning generated the highest costs, i.e. EUR 58 million, said a press release.

The costs of improvement of young stands were EUR 19 million, while EUR 48 million were invested in artificial regeneration and EUR 35 million in soil preparation.

Investments in forest improvement nearly halved year-on-year.

“In total, costs of construction and basic improvement of forest roads and ditch network maintenance totalled EUR 23 million. This decline resulted from decreases in basic improvement of forest roads. The allocation of multi-year projects regarding forest road maintenance determines the year in which each specific road is recorded in statistics,” said Aarre Peltola, a senior statistician at Luke.

On the basis of notifications of forest use, the area treated with fellings was estimated to be 688,000 hectares. Intermediate fellings accounted for 73 per cent of this area. The regeneration felling area was 176,000 hectares. Of this, clear-cutting made up 144,000 hectares. With regard to forest regeneration, clear-cutting was clearly more common than natural regeneration.

In 2017, the artificial regeneration area decreased by 5 per cent from the previous year to 103,000 hectares. Of this, roughly three quarters were planted and one quarter was seeded. Of the area planted (79,000 hectares), 67 per cent was regenerated for spruce and 28 per cent for pine. Birch accounted for five per cent of this area. Forest planting nearly always took place manually. Seeded areas are usually regenerated for pine, and this is mostly done mechanically.

The growing conditions of naturally and artificially regenerated seedling stands can be improved by means of soil preparation. “In 2017, the soil preparation area was 105,000 hectares, being slightly larger than in the previous year. The most common method was mounding which accounted for two-thirds of the soil preparation area,” Peltola said.