The depth-to-water-index (DTW-index) is derived from digital elevation models (DEM) to map soil wetness, in terms of distance from soil surface to the ground water table. The aim of this GIS based study was to investigate the existence of a relationship between DTW-index and forest site productivity (SP). The belief of such an assumed relationship was based on knowledge that the ground water level is related to site properties that can either promote or impede tree growth. Data primarily comprised rasters of the Krycklan catchment in northern Sweden and depicted DTW-index and a laser scanned vegetation height. The 100th height percentile of each pixel in the vegetation raster was assumed to mirror the top-height, letting it act as a relative measure of SP within a delineated area of equal stand age.

Stress-related diseases in Sweden have doubled since 1997. Even longterm sickness related tostress has increased over the last decade. In future there is a need of alternative methods todecrease the amount of people being affected to gain a better population health. Natureassisted therapy (NAT) was shown to be a successful method as part of the therapy of stressand burnout likewise was nature an important factor to prevent people from mentaldisorders. The aim of this study was to analyse the latest research concearning nature and itshealth effects with focus on stress and burnout patients in order to plan health promotingactivities outdoors for these patients.

The background of this study is an article in the hunting magazine ?Svensk Jakt? where Karl Hedin claims that his sawmills has not noticed any significant moose damages in the timber. The purpose with the study is to find out the causes to the moose explosion and what it has led to in today?s forests. A questionnaire has been sent out to sawmills in the region Dalarna with the purpose of finding out if sawmills receive moose-damaged timber and what they think about how they foresee future development. There were two causes of the moose explosion, that had effects on the moose population. The first cause was that the moose hunters wanted to raise the moose population, and by raising the calf shooting and by saving the cows they succeeded. The second cause was changing methods in Swedish forestry.

The background of this study is an article in the hunting magazine ?Svensk Jakt? where Karl Hedin claims that his sawmills has not noticed any significant moose damages in the timber. The purpose with the study is to find out the causes to the moose explosion and what it has led to in today?s forests. A questionnaire has been sent out to sawmills in the region Dalarna with the purpose of finding out if sawmills receive moose-damaged timber and what they think about how they foresee future development. There were two causes of the moose explosion, that had effects on the moose population. The first cause was that the moose hunters wanted to raise the moose population, and by raising the calf shooting and by saving the cows they succeeded. The second cause was changing methods in Swedish forestry.

During the period called Little Ice Age (1400 ~ 1900) the climate of northern Europe was in an annual year-basis overall colder than it was before and after that period. The numbers of short, cold and rainy summers and long, bitter-cold winters where often repetitive under the approximately 500-years the period lasted. In Scandinavia, the coldest time during this period is estimated to have started around the end of the 16th century and lasted to the beginning of the 18th century. Trees growing at the tree-line are limited by temperature for their annual growth and hence showing differences of growth during changes in the climate,  a method called dendroclimatology. The variations of growth can be read in the tree-rings either by analyze the width of the ring or by look into the density of the wood and is used to reconstruct past climates.

The global wood pellet market has seen a rapid growth after the adoption of the Kyoto protocol and the renewable energy incentives created within the European Union. The global consumption of wood pellets reached 13,5 million tonnes in 2010 and several experts estimate the consumption to be between 35-50 million tonnes by 2020. These forescasts raise the questions which regions that can supply this vast amount of wood pellets and what the conditions are for producing it. This study evaluates the conditions for wood pellet production and export from British Columbia, on Canada?s west coast, focusing on existing industry structure, raw material supply and the distribution chain.

Fire is an important ecological factor, but its consumption of coarse woody debris, CWD, has hardly received any attention. In this study, I investigate the consumption in relation to the time of initial flame exposure and propensity for continued combustion of standing CWD of pine (Pinus sylvestris). Two types of CWD were studied. Firstly, wood that had been dead for one to ten years. Secondly, wood that had been dead for several decades. In the burning experiments, logs of approx.

This thesis describes the planning and development of a volume meter of pine and spruce cones. The product was designed and developed for Stigsjö Skog och Frö AB in Härnösand. It was developed taking into account a number of requirements set by the supervisor David Zetterlund. The main requirements were that the volume measurement would be fast and give accurate results. These are two requirements that are missing in today's volume measuring method which is very problematic for the company.The plant was visited several times in Härnösand, mainly to discuss the generated concepts with the supervisor and perform tests on the prototype.

The background of this study is an article in the hunting magazine ?Svensk Jakt? where Karl Hedin claims that his sawmills has not noticed any significant moose damages in the timber. The purpose with the study is to find out the causes to the moose explosion and what it has led to in today?s forests. A questionnaire has been sent out to sawmills in the region Dalarna with the purpose of finding out if sawmills receive moose-damaged timber and what they think about how they foresee future development. There were two causes of the moose explosion, that had effects on the moose population. The first cause was that the moose hunters wanted to raise the moose population, and by raising the calf shooting and by saving the cows they succeeded. The second cause was changing methods in Swedish forestry.

One of the most important components of a harvester is the crane. Most harvester cranes are only possible to pivot (or horizontally rotate) at the crane pillar. Cranab in Vindeln, Sweden, has developed a new type of harvester crane which has an extra pivot point on the outer boom. This makes it possible to reach around residual trees, easing thinning work in dense stands. The aim of the study was to analyze if the use of a pivoting outer boom (POB) crane gave an increase in thinning production and if there were any differences in time consumption between the work elements for the POB crane and a conventional crane. A Valmet 911.3 equipped with a POB crane was used in the study.

Trees in urban environment are exposed to extreme conditions, foremost the ones that grow in the hard packed soil along our streets. They are also exposed to damaging insects and fungal diseases both local and new ones spreading from South Europe. The global warming with warmer temperatures provides a longer growing season, making it easier for insects and fungus to establish a habitat. Based on these facts new tree species need to be available for future urban plantings.To determine what these trees would be an interview study began. Six people were selected who have experience in the field of urban environment planting.

The aim of this study was to provide SCA Forest Norrbotten District with material to assist in their work towards decreasing the frequency of bucking splits in their saw timber logs. SCA Forest supplies the Munksund sawmill with pine timber. Periodically the sawmill experiences problems related to bucking splits in their logs. The purpose of this study was to find an available method to measure the occurrence of splits directly on incoming timber. The ambition was also to gain some knowledge about possible variations between different logging crews in terms of split frequency. If possible, this information could be used to investigate if certain crews produced more splits than others, and thereby making it possible to provide feedback to the logging machine operators. The study consisted of two major parts, a literature review, and a practical sawmill study.

Resin-top disease is a rust fungi that occurs both as a host alternating form, Cronartium flaccidum G. Winter., and as a non-host alternating form, Peridermium pini Pers. The host alternating form can use a variety of hosts but the most commonly used species in the boreal forest is Melampyrum sylvaticum. In Scandinavia the Resin-top disease infect Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris L. The fungus infects the needles through the stomata and then grows through the branch to the stem where it strangulates the vessels transporting water and nutrition to the treetop, which kills the top.

Modern forestry management may disadvantage some mykorrhiza forming fungi because; they are dependent on late successions and cannot survive the constantly recurring breaks in the continuity of their host tree. For this study the specie goliatmusseron (Tricholoma matsutake) was chosen to investigate this possibility. In Sweden T. matsutake is found in greatest amounts north of Örnsköldsvik on glacifluvial sandy soils in association with pine trees and reindeer lichens. Seventy two forest stands where the specie previously had been found were studied; 62 in the northern part of Sweden and ten in the southern. Several indicators were studied to find out if these stands have had a continuity of living trees.

Analyses of pollen and charcoal in peat cores, together with age-structure data of Pinus sylvestris from a Ledum-Pinus-mire in the Tyresta National Park (south-east Sweden) show the regional vegetation succession and fire history over the last 9000 years. Five major stages of mire development are identified: 1. Lake (c 7000-6400 cal BC); 2. Wet fen (c 6400-6000 cal BC); 3. Deciduous fen (c 6000 cal BC to c cal AD 700); 4.