A recommendation for stand treatment of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) is, in a scientific point of view, lacking when it comes to harvesting for biomass energy. Within the next decades it is expected that 280 000 hectares of lodgepole pine will have reached thinning age on the domains of Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA). Due to this the interest has grown rapidly for studying the possibilities of harvesting biofuel assortments already in the first thinning. In this study the distribution of the biomass within lodgepole pine trees has been studied and taken into account for estimating the proportions of harvested assortments when using different methods of thinning. The methods studied were conventional biofuel-harvesting (with delimbed branches gathered separately from the round wood) and thinning with cutting of round wood and long tops (incl.

Over the past 40 years 600 000 ha of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta ssp. latifolia (Engelm.) Critchf.) has been planted in Sweden (280 000 ha on SCA's forest land alone which represents about 15% of the company's total forest land area). In the early 70's SCA situated a number of experimental stands in order to investigate different aspects of the exotic tree, primarily growth rate. To be able to compare the two species plots with scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), this species was also planted at the same time and under the same conditions. A number of questions should always be raised when exotic species are introduced in an ecosystem. Invasiveness, the pathogen situation and purely ethical issues should be discussed.

SCA har idag cirka 280 000 hektar beskogad med Contortatall (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm). Stora delar av den arealen har kommit in i, eller är på väg in i, gallringsbar ålder.

Syftet med föreliggande arbete är att utreda några markbehandlingsmetoders för och nackdelar, samt när och var de bör användas. De markbehandlingsmetoder som behandlas är plöjning, högläggning, harvning, fläckmarkberedning, inversmarkberedning, ångbehandling, mikropreparering, nedmyllning av frön samt grönrisplantering. Även mineralisering som en följd av markberedning berörs, liksom markberedning för sådd och naturlig föryngring. Uppsatsen behandlar huvudsakligen markbehandling på boreal skogsmark. Resultaten sammanställs i praktiska rekommendationer. Arbetet har genomförts som en litteraturstudie med analytiska inslag.