Arvika Fastighets AB is a municipal subsidiary tasked with managing all green areas in the municipality, with a strong focus on the City Park and plant beds in the city centre. These areas generate large amounts of green waste, which is currently transported to the municipality's composting area at Lycke. Currently, the material is piled up and turned once a year without using the resulting soil for flowerbeds, lawns, and shrub/tree plantings. The purpose of the study is to determine if Arvika can compost the green waste in a more efficient manner and produce weed-free soil ready to be mixed into various substrates for different purposes. Interviews with the Swedish Church and several municipalities in Sweden have been conducted to learn from their experiences and knowledge of how they make their composting work.

Ungulates are causing conflicts between stakeholders due to browsing damage on forests and agricultural crops. At the same time there is a big demand of keeping high ungulate densities for sports hunting and recreational purposes. Movement patterns of ungulates are strongly correlated with forage availability. Therefore, measures affecting forage quantity and distribution might be a tool to reduce the economical losses in forestry without decreasing the ungulate densities and thereby decrease the conflict between different interest groups.This study investigated the potential biomass production and utilisation of marrow-stem kale (Brassica oleracea var. medullosa), at game fields in Misterhult, Sweden, as well as browsing effects on adjacent forests.

The estate of Rämningstorp in the region of Västergötland in southern Sweden is administered by the holding trust company Skogssällskapet i Skövde. In 1999 measures were taken by Skogssällskapet to drain the stream Fredstorpsbäcken as a means to increase the forest productivity of the surrounding lands, which are situated on the estate of Rämningstorp. Almost immediately after the drainage, the streamwater turned turbid and a landowner downstream reported the issue to the county administrative board of the region. The aim of this thesis was firstly to analyse the suspended matter that appeared during summer/autumn and secondly to explain why it came to be. Initial hypotheses for the explanation to the greyish turbid water were that it was either 1) a chemical/biochemical precipitate, or 2) an bacterial/algal blooming.

The artic fox is under threat of extermination in Europe. The population decreased strongly at the beginning of the twentieth century because of intensive hunting. The artic fox was placed under protection by law 1928 in Sweden but despite this the population has had difficultly to recover. This can depend on several reasons, but the main threats are shortage of food and competition from the red fox. Along with Norway and Finland, Sweden has carried out a project called SEFALO (Saving the Endangered Fennoscandian Alopex lagopus), whose objectives were to prevent continued decreased populationnumbers and through, for example supplementary feeding, help the population to recover.

Almost half of the population in Sweden suffers from obesity and the cases of eating disorders are increasing. We are exposed daily to the belief that losing weight will make us happier and it will just be through this particular diet. Even if it has been proven that short dieting plans like ?lose 20 pounds in one month? doesn?t give a long-term result, society continues to buy into the idea that they do.Every day 16000 placards are placed around us in Sweden with loud yellow colors and big black letters which make them almost impossible to avoid. Their main purpose is to attract and get as many people as possible to buy single copies.This essay deals with several questions: How diet tips figures on placards and how this has developed through years.

Time studies in dairy production are an essential tool when deciding about level of mechanisation and automatisation both in investment situation and improving efficiency in existing operations. In previous investigations such studies have been carried out during normal barn conditions during winter. Since there is a compulsory to have dairy cows grazing 3 to 5 months during summer time in Sweden time studies during this season is important to have a full picture of needed working time. During grazing season time studies was carried out at 14 dairy farms representing herd sizes from 66 to 450 dairy cows of which 6 farms with AMS. 8 farms were the same as studied during winter season.

Diversity of ground beetles (Col: Carabidae) in managed riparian grasslands. The carabid community in moist seminatural grasslands was studied at three different sites in mid-Sweden. Pitfall trapping was carried out during six weeks in spring and early summer 2003. Eight transects, each containing seven pitfall traps, were placed in three different management regimes, either late or continous grazing, or meadow. The species composition was analysed by ordination analyses, i.e. DCA and CCA.

A geographical position and its social, cultural and political context as well as climate and specific physical characteristics define the scope for a landscape design project. This has become clearer for us in our master project where we have made a Design Program for the outdoor environment of Wollo University in Dessie, Ethiopia and analysed and reflected on the work and process. The aim for the project has been to design an attractive and functional outdoor environment for the Campus, based on the inventories and the needs and wishes of clients and users. But, the aim has also been for us as landscape architect students to gain a greater knowledge about landscape architecture and the design process by position ourselves outside our usual context. The method has been open and seeking where the site, literature studies, dialogues with people and our own experiences from the field study in Ethiopia has influenced the work. Wollo University is situated 400 kilometers north of Addis Ababa, in a mountainous landscape. It faces problems of heavy rainfall during the summer, soil erosion, a lack of essential facilities, and is still a construction site with empty spaces in-between buildings and infrastructure.

The purpose with this study was to analyze the possibilities to produce organic lambs and to hihglight the most common difficulties in such a production system. A description of current organic and conventional lamb production systems was conducted, both from Sweden and from some other countries. The Department of Animal Environment and Health at SLU in Skara performed the project together with The County Board of Agriculture in Västra Götaland and Värmland and The Swedish Animal Health Service. The project lasted from 2002 to 2004. The student report contains the years 2002 and 2003. In the year of 2003 there were 210 000 adult sheep in Sweden, of which 16 400 adult sheep were certified by KRAV. Of the different countries in Sweden, Västra Götaland and Gotland had the largest number of sheep, 14 and 13 per cent of the total number.

Ensåsengruvan is a mine situated within Ljusdals municipality in central Sweden. Themine was in use from 1984 to 1991 and has since been undergoing a remediation program. Mine tailings from sulfide rich ore is a potential environmental hazard due to its tendency to cause acid waters and heavy metal leakage. Lake Ensjön is situated one kilometer from the mine area. Due to the hydrological conditions it was not expected to receive inflowing water from the mining area.

To enjoy the richness of the grazing cows and high yield during the summers, even during the winter, cheese has been the way to store milk for thousands of years. Nowadays yield is high all year around and the cheese production is possible during all seasons. The aim of this paper is to investi-gate how and why the seasons influence taste and texture of pressed and ripened cheese. Milk is composed of proteins, fat, lactose and water but contains also a lot of vitamins. The quality of milk is very important for the final constitution of cheese.

The wide distribution range of our boreal pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) provides a great variation in growing conditions and climate/weather factors that influence the wood development of the trees. A great number of extensive studies have been conducted over the years in order to clarify growth trends of this and other species over more or less wide-ranging areas. In this thesis effects of weather factors were instead compared between different forest stands from the about same geographical location. The effects of precipitation, temperature and frost on the year ring characteristics of pine were studied in the research forest of Svartberget Vindeln, in northern Sweden. The stands differed in site index and silvicultural treatment; fertile ? high stem density, fertile ? low stem density, poor ? high stem density and poor ? low stem density.

During the last two hundred years many wetlands and streams in Sweden have been lowered to provide land for agriculture and forestry. Some of the coastal wetlands and streams probably served as spawning sites for certain species of fish in the Baltic Sea, but the present situation is not well known. As standardized methods to monitor fish in running waters are carried out during late summer or autumn, there is a need for methods to sample spring-spawning fish in these streams.The aim of this study was to survey the lower kilometer stretch of Hammerstaån in Stockholm, to investigate the extent to which the stream is used by spring-spawning fish. Furthermore, the study aims to evaluate a new type of survey fishing gill net called strömöversiktsnät (SÖN). This was done by comparing the catch of fish by SÖN with that of fyke nets.

During natural conditions cattle live in large herds, which are divided into subgroups of 10-15 animals. Humans have held cattle for over 9000 years. Today we mostly have cows for milk and meat production during more or less intensive forms. Most of the Swedish cattle have the opportunity to graze during the summer time. This partly arises from the Swedish Animal Protection law which stipulates that cattle must have the option to be outside and graze, also partly because it makes it easier for the farmer.

Heat stress negatively influences the performance of dairy cattle such as lactation and reproduction. Heat stress can cause production losses as well as welfare problems. Years of research have shown that heat stress is a huge problem for dairy cattle in both the tropics and temperate zones but no such research have so far been done in northern European countries. It seems like shade is an important tool when improving pasture conditions and therefore deserves more attention. The aim with this study was to investigate whether there is a need of providing shade for grazing dairy cows during the summer in Sweden. Two groups of lactating Swedish Red dairy cows (n=15 per group) were kept on pasture.