This report is a B.Sc. Forestry thesis work at the school for Forest Management, SLU. The work was an assignment from the forest owners? association Mellanskog. The aim of the work where to investigate the economical result of removing undergrowth trees before first thinning, and a follow-up of the contractors and their compliance with Mellanskog standards. This thesis work was divided in three parts: The first was to find a relation between the net volume from the first thinning and the cost of cleaning undergrowth trees. Secondly there was a follow-up in the field, to investigate whether the contractors have done the undergrowth cleaning according to Mellanskog?s directives.

As demand for renewable energy is increasing rapidly, the market for biomass pellets is expected to continue to grow in the near future. Most of the new raw materials that are discussed for pellet production have one thing in common; the production costs will increase compared to using traditional raw materials such as sawdust and planer shavings. The aim of this thesis is to investigate to what degree increased use of new raw materials for pellet production will affect the general pellet prices in Sweden and to survey what plans Swedish pellet producers have concerning new raw materials. To investigate the raw material situation of the Swedish pellet producers an industry survey was performed. Literature studies were also made on previous research in the subject field. Calculations of the production costs for pellets were done for the raw materials sawdust, wet sawmill chips and energy wood respectively. New raw materials are already used by the large-scale pellet producers in Sweden.

Profit in first commercial thinnings of today is hard to achieve. This is because of prevailing pulpwood prices and because of high costs of logging and transport. To reduce these costs higher productivity is advocated. One way to increase the productivity is the use of multi-tree handling harvester heads. The aim of this study was to calculate logging and transport costs in first thinnings, where multi-tree handling has been used.

Stormen 2005 drabbade södra Sverige och skövlade nästan 70 miljoner m3 timmer på en natt, varför mycket timmer lagrades i Kisasjön. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka om bottenfaunan i Kisasjön påverkats av timmerlagringen genom låga syrehalter och ändrat bottensubstrat. Även den närbelägna Knoppetorpssjön dit Kisasjöns vatten rinner undersöktes. På vardera tio djup under språngskiktet i varje sjö togs fem ekmanhugg. Syreförhållandena mättes vid varje lokal och sedimentet beskrevs.

Root rot causes large economical losses for Swedish forestry. The spread of root rot can partly be prevented by treating the spruce stumps in thinnings. Late pre-commercial thinning (PCT) is one of the forestry measures where stump treatment is not used. Late PCT can be defined as: The act of cleaning the stand with the aim of improving accessibility and sight within the stand, and so to increase the mean stem´s volume during the first conventional thinning. The aim of this study was to examine how late PCT is performed, its spatial extent and if it aids the spreading of root rot. The study was limited to encompass late PCT before first conventional thinnings in spruce stands in southern Sweden. Samples of spruce stumps were taken from four stands where late PTC had been carried out.

The Swedish dairy sector is facing several challenges the coming years. One big challenge is how they will secure the access of their raw material milk in the future. The number of milk producers has decreased for an extended period of time, but was for a long time partly compensated by an increased productivity among the remaining milk producers. From year 2000 that trend was broken and also the quantity of milk produced started to fall quickly. Milko is a dairy company with members from Dalsland in the south to Jämtland in the north. During the first seven moths 2007, their number of members decreased by almost a fourth, from 1 272 to 974.

Lakvatten har varierande föroreningsgrad och karaktär. Det bildas då regnvatten perkolerar igenom en deponi. I en deponiverksamhet är lakvattnet den huvudsakliga påverkan på den omgivande miljön. För att begränsa föroreningshalten i naturen behöver lakvattnet samlas upp och omhändertas. Olika tekniker har utvecklats för att rena lakvatten lokalt.

Smurfit Kappa Kraftliner är Europas största kraftlinerbruk och ligger beläget i centrala Piteå. Den 21 april 2005 upphandlades en ny biobränslepanna som möjliggör förbränning av eget spillmaterial såsom bark, spån, bioslam och returfiberrejekt. Returfiberrejekt är en restprodukt bestående av 50% massa och 50% plast samt metallföroreningar. Den aluminiumhalt som idag råder i returfiberrejektet uppgår till 0,225% av torrsubstans, ett värde som enligt pannleverantörerna inte får överstiga 0,05%. För att möjliggöra en förbränning av returfiberrejektet krävs det att aluminiumhalten reduceras.

When Norway spruce is planted with large initial spacing and grows on highly productive sites in southern Sweden, a high proportion of the stems gets broad annual rings. The thinning programme carried out at the estate of Trolleholm aims to extract stems with too broad ring width. The 3-4 first thinnings are carried out as thinning from above, where only the thickest trees are removed. The internal distance may not fall below 5-7 meters depending on the number of thinning (short distance in young stands). The aim of this study was to examine the thinning model that is carried out at the estate of Trolleholm. A volume table is calculated to describe the model, and data is collected on temporary plots.

StoraEnso decided in year 2002 to build a pulp mill in the province of Guangxi, southernChina, and also establish eucalyptus plantations to provide it with raw material. By 2010StoraEnso controls about 90 000 of planned 120 000 ha, out of 75 000 ha is already plantedwith Eucalyptus.By using better genetic material, improve the tending, selecting the sites more careful and byusing a proper fertilization regime StoraEnso hopes to increase the mean annual incrementfrom today?s 25 m3/ha, on bark, to 35 m3/ha. This study is one part in this work to increase themean annual increment in the plantation.This master thesis is the forth in a series, that has followed up a fertilization trial that startedin spring 2006 when the trial was laid out and treatments decided. The aim with the trial is toexamine the production potential of Eucalyptus urophylla in Guangxi, southern China.

Granbarkborren, Ips typographus, är den mest destruktiva skadeinsekten för svensk barrskog och orsakar årligen stora ekonomiska förluster för landets skogsägare. Granbarkborren kan endast föröka sig i döda träd. För att döda ett stående friskt träd kan de med feromoner signalera till andra granbarkborrar att tillsammans inleda en massattack. Granbarkborren är även beroende av blånadssvampar för att kunna slå ut friska träd. Med dessa blånadssvampar kombinerat med en massattack kan granbarkborren döda trädet inom några veckor.

The European Union provide 27 % of total volume raw milk produced in the world. This number is steadily decreasing due to that the world milk production increase is more rapid than EU production growth. The growing middle-class change the demand for food, a higher standard of living increase the demand of milk products as well as other various animal products. Since 1984 the EU milk quota has limited the supply from EU, but the quota will expire April 1st 2015. The European Milk Board expect that the removal of quotas will make the farm gate price decline.

I Sverige har en ny lag om virkesmätning trätt i kraft där sortimentet trädbränsle numera ingår. Värmeverken som är stora förbrukare av trädbränsle ställer olika krav på trädbränslets kvalitet. Kvaliteten styrs av vilken förbränningsteknik som värmeverket använder. Generellt brukar kvalitetskraven för bränsleflis indelas i värmevärde, askhalt, homogenitet, fukthalt samt fraktionsfördelning. Fraktionsfördelningen har på senare tid visat sig vara av allt större betydelse för värmeverken men trots detta utgör den idag inte någon betalningsgrund.

The aim of this study was to evaluate different types of volume and taper equations that can be used to predict single-tree stem volume and stem diameter at any given height along the tree stem for plantation grown Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.), Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) and White spruce (Picea glauca (Mounch) Voss) in Iceland. A number of published tree volume equations were tested and modified to predict the total stem volumes over bark but three logarithmic equations were taken for more in-depth analysis. Three taper equations were tested. Two variable-exponent equations (Kozak 1997, Kozak 2004) and one exponential equation described by Biging (1984). Data from a total of 617 sample trees were used in this study, collected from stands in various parts of the country and present different types of stands growing in different soil types and cover most of the site conditions suitable for forestry in Iceland.

A high amount of dead wood is one of the most important prerequisites for high biodiversity on forest land in Sweden. Dead wood is most abundant in young forests, thinned forests, woodland key habitats and protected forest land. In old-growth forests most of the dead wood consists of logs and snags, whilst in managed forests a huge proportion of dead wood is made up of logging residues like stumps and FWD, fine woody debris (< 10 cm diameter). All these different types of dead wood may serve as substrates for epixylic bryophytes and lichens. However, few studies have been conducted on the relative importance of these different fractions of dead wood for the occurrence of bryophytes and lichens, especially when considering dead wood on thinned forest land.