Over the past few years the Swedish forestry industry has become increasing interested in direct seeding. Although, in practice, this interest has been restricted to pine seed, the knowledge and techniques that have been developed for pine seeding can readily be transferred to spruce. Direct seeding is a method that is of interest to the forestry industry since it can lead to lower regeneration costs, denser stands and better root development than the more conventional planting method. This study evaluated experiments that focused on direct seeding of spruce in the northern Sweden. Skogforsk set-up the experiments in Gideå and Sävar in 2003.

Different methods for Shelterwood cutting have been used in differ-ent parts of Europe since the middle ages. The use of shelter wood cutting in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) forests in Sweden met a revival in the early 1990s as an alternative for the dominating clear-cutting system when silvicultural costs increased dramatically for the latter. Shelterwood cutting systems involve some possible problems but also a lot of positive effects. Among the problems are increased risk of wind throw and damage of the remaining shelter trees caused by the cutting operation. Positive effects are for example a valuable growth in the remaining trees and increased biological di-versity. This study is based on a total of 79 trees from 4 different treatments in a spruce Shelterwood, cut in 1994, in the middle of Sweden (62,4º N).

The interest for alternative forest regeneration methods increased significantly during the 1990´s after 50 years dominance of the clear-cutting system (Holgén & Hånell 2000). One reason for this was that clear-cutting was being more and more questioned by different envi-ronmental organizations and because the forest sector for economical reasons wanted to find cheaper ways to regenerate forests. In the beginning of the 1990´s two Shelterwood experi-ments were established in a joint effort by Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) and the Dept of Silviculture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). The experiments include various forms of cutting and Shelterwood densities and represent productive spruce forests in central and north Sweden (Roggsjön in the province of Medelpad and Skikkis-jöberg in the province of Västerbotten, respectively ). The experiment next to Roggsjön has been reported earlier in three MSc theses, and is also the focus of this thesis.

The aims of the silvicultural method natural regeneration of spruce (Picea abies L. Karst) in birch (Betula pendula and pubescens) Shelterwoods are to establish a new stand of tree seedl-ings and to protect those from high groundwater levels, frost damages and grass competition during its first life years. The aim of this work has been to (i) describe how Shelterwood and stand characteristics influ-ence the results from using natural regeneration of spruce protected by a Shelterwood of birch, and to (ii) compare those regeneration results with planting of spruce after soil scarification in clear-cut areas. Totally 17 harvesting sites have been inventoried and 15 of those included natural regenera-tion in birch Shelterwoods, and two were subjects to soil scarification and planting of spruce. The sites represented 7-10 year old final cuts and are located in the coastal (eastern) region of the province of Norrbotten in Sweden. In all areas Shelterwood and stand characteristics, as well as the number of main crop seedlings and the height of the highest main crop spruce seedling, were estimated and registered in all areas.

This study is made on assignment by the local board of forestry in Skåne, Blekinge and Halland. The change of the forest law 1994 brought a new type of management plan. A more active planning was introduced in order to equate the environment goal with the production goal. The purpose with this study is to give a better picture of how planning for nature conservation in production forest is made and to develop support for selection of silviculture methods for stands with combined goals. With combined goals means production forestry with a reinforced consideration to both nature and culture, called PF-classified stands. This was done by: ? Describing silviculture models from the literature that are possible to use for stands with combined goals. ? Describing silviculture models that is used in practice in stands with combined goals. ? Describing how the classification of stands with combined goals is used. Which means, were in the terrain, with which frequency and in which type of forest PF-classification is used. ? Comparing differences and similarities of theoretical and practical used models. The study was done partly as a literature study and partly as an interview study of forest planners.

This thesis is built on a field study that was carried out in two seed-tree stands near by Götbrunna in Uppland, Sweden. The aim was to examine if scarification carried out in spring time could generate a more dense seedling establishment when using natural generation, than scarification carried out in autumn. It was also investigated whether there were differences in mortality the first season between the two plot-types. Plots were established block-wise with 50 blocks (pairs) on each site. The spring scarification was made with a hoe during 22-23 of April.

?Development of Norway spruce, Douglas fir beech and Scots pine with a larch shelter wood? is a report written by Per-Olof Magnusson. The thesis is a compulsory part of forest engineer program at ?Skogsmästarskolan?, SLU, Skinnskatteberg, Sweden. The purpose of this report is to describe and evaluate an experiment with hybrid larch (Larix x eurolepis) as shelter wood, and different tree species growth and survival depending on the density of the shelter wood. The experiment is conducted by southern Swedish forest research centre, faculty of forestry, SLU in Alnarp. The hybrid larch ought to be an interesting alternative to birch (Betula sp.) as Shelterwood on suitable sites in southern Sweden.

Eftersom hållbart skogsbruk innebär att man i skogsbruket tar lika stor hänsyn till de ekologiska och sociala aspekterna som de ekonomiska är det viktigt att utvärdera alternativ till det konventionella trakthyggesbruket för att säkerställa att alla värden i skogen uppnås. Ett så kallat schackrutesystem, eller Chequered-Gap-Shelterwood-System (CGS-system), är ett system där träd avverkas i mindre luckor som sedan alterneras med motsvarande skärmställningar. Detta skapar ett tvåskiktat bestånd med schackrutemönster. CGS-systemet är ett skötselförslag där fördelarna från både trakthyggesbruk och kalhyggesfritt skogsbruk eventuellt skulle kunna kombineras. Målet med denna studie är att utvärdera tillväxten av plantor och träd i CGS-system.

The storm Gudrun January 8-9 2005 felled about 70 millions cubic metres forest in southern Sweden. The majority of the wind damaged forest was spruce (Picea abies). In order to decrease the risk of wind damages in the future other trees species are of interest for forestry in southern Sweden. The purpose of this master thesis was to study if larch were more wind tolerant than spruce. The method was to compare larch, Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi Lamb.), European larch (L.

Thinning is the partial removal of trees in a forest stand prior to final harvest. The term can be divided in pre-commercial thinning where little if any volume is removed from the stand and commercial thinning where removals are intended to provide a positive economic result. From a silvicultural point of view, the goal of thinning is to enhance future crop tree quality by removing low-quality stems and providing sufficient space for the accelerated development of retained ones (Huuskonen & Hynynen, 2006). The goals of this study was to see if commercial thinning could positively affect the short and medium term timber supply (MTTS) in the Interior regions of British Columbia (BC), and whether or not Scandinavian forestry practices could be adopted in the BC context. The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) has created significant forest planning problems in BC. The annual allowable cut (AAC) was raised to capture beetle-killed timber while still merchantable.