Stora Enso Skog has a long term contract regarding felling rights and silvicultural activities on forest owned by Bergvik Skog. In the autumn 2006, Bergvik Skog proposed a new Thinning program, ?Bergvikgallring?. The new program implied an increased focus on extraction of smaller trees compared to the present Thinning program, Stora Enso Skog?s ?Kvalitetsgallring?.

The brown bear population in Alberta, Canada has been decreasing, while the Swedish has been increasing and all the affecting parameters are not known. This study examined the difference in these populations to see if an explanation could be found in differences between the forest management. The aim of the paper was to see if stand treatments had an influence of brown bears habitat selection in autumn in Sweden and how the results can be used in Alberta. This was done by analyzing bear positions in Sweden with forest data, and comparing forest management data for the study area in Sweden with forest management data for Alberta. The results displayed that mature forests over 60 years that have been commercially thinned are selected by bears rather than forests over 60 years that have not been commercially thinned in.

Stands where pre commercial Thinning has been ignored or inadequate often tend to have high stem density and low average diameter when they reach heights of Thinning. In such stands, it can often be expensive to do a conventional pulpwood harvest as a first Thinning. This study investigates the development of the stands and the economic outcome of forest fuel extraction, or a combined harvest as alternatives to the ordinary pulpwood harvest. Simulations in Heureka StandWise were performed for two thin and dense stands, which were constructed by data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory. The simulations show that the extraction of forest fuel in first Thinning at an early stage can provide higher net revenue compared to conventional pulpwood harvest at the same time or later.

Overdue cleanings have for a long time been an important topic of discussion within the forestry sector. When stands that have not been pre-commercially thinned are reaching the level of commercial Thinning, many problems occur in terms of decision-making and economical outcomes. These types of stands are commonly known as conflict-stands. The work was carried out partly as an interview survey towards representatives from the forest sector and the energy sector, partly as a case study of conflict-stands situated in Böksholm, north of Växjö and in Tönnersjö east of Halmstad. The criteria for the studied stands were that they had to be dominated by Norway spruce and be in a severe status of ?conflict?. The aim of the interview was to get an overview of the situation today, and also analyse trends in terms of conflict stands.

SCA has today almost 300 000 hectares of their forest land planted with lodgepole pine(Pinus contorta var. latifolia). Due to initial extensive planting in the 1970ies the area oflodgepole pine forests in the Thinning age has grown rapidly from the end of the 1990ies.During the years 1996-2005 first commercial Thinning of lodgepole pine at SCA took place.The goal of the hereby presented study was to investigate the growth and stability in thosefirstly-thinned lodgepole pine stands a few years after Thinning. Furthermore, the objectivewas to investigate the relationship between stand stability and different stand parameters.Additionally, lodgepole pine stem quality was estimated.The study is mainly based on the data collected during an inventory project carried out atSCA in 2008. Altogether 91 lodgepole pine stands in northern Sweden were measured afterthe first Thinning.

Thinning is one of the most important silvicultural activities in middle aged forests, partly to minimize damages and partly because it leads to earlier harvesting revenues and increases the value of the remaining trees. There are many different indices used to describe stand density and thereby the need of Thinning in forests today. Studies have shown that forest variables can be estimated with high accuracy using airborne laser scanning and it is likely that the method could also be used to estimate forest density indices. In this study, the possibility of using the forest density index ?H² to determine and map priorities for Thinning operations for a forest area was examined.

A storm in January 2005 felled 75 millions cubic metres of forest in South Sweden. Previous studies of wind damage in thinned stands indicated the importance of early Thinnings. The risks of wind throw increased by increasing age and height of the stands. Previous studies also indicated increasing risk of wind throw along the strip roads. The aim of the present study was to investigate wind damage in Norway spruce stands in South Sweden in relation to time of the first Thinning and different pattern of strip roads (width, length and direction).

I Sverige finns ca 1,2 miljoner hektar skog som bedöms ha omedelbart röjningsbehov. Skog där röjningen uteblir eller är svag kan komma att klassas som konfliktbestånd. I konfliktbestånd är stammarna många och diameterspridningen stor och dessa kan då behövas underröjas innan gallring. I denna studie jämfördes produktionen, kostnaderna och intäkterna från fyra olika underröjningsbehandlingar, oröjd, siktröjt, röjt allt upp till 5 cm i brösthöjd och röjt allt upp till 7 cm i brösthöjd. Behandlingen oröjd gav det bästa nettot och sämst hade upp till 5 cm efter gallring och uttransport av virke.

Earlier attempts at mechanising pre-commercial Thinning have been met with varying degrees of success. Most attempts have been based on techniques where residual stems are straddled. Early treatment is essential to limit damage on residual trees. One part of the present study is an evaluation of mechanised pre-commercial Thinning using the new Vimek 404R. Vimek 404R is a fairly small machine that permits selective removal of stems, making it potentially suitable also for areas overdue for pre-commercial Thinning. The study established the level of performance for the machine, as well as the improvement needed to make it an economically viable option.

Wind damages next to strip roads in 1st and 2nd Thinning in Boxholm, Östergötland Anneli Fransson, SLU, inst f sydsvensk skogsvetenskap, Examensarbete no 108 Wind damage is something we are all familiar with since the storms Gudrun (2005) and Per (2007). Research about strip roads and wind damage is very limited. It is commonly known that the trees next to the strip roads more often fall whit heavy winds, and the purpose of this thesis was to verify this statement. Data was collected from first- and second Thinnings at Boxholms Skogar AB, Östergötland. In first Thinnings data was collected from both spruce and pine stands and second Thinnings only data from spruce stands was collected.

This study was conducted on a property with a Thinning machine team. The purpose was to investigate in which machine, the harvester or the forwarder, that caused most damage to the trees in six different stands. Different factors, related to the damage frequency in the stands, were checked out. For example: basal area per hectare, Thinning strength, tree diameter and the rate of production. The harvester drivers were also interviewed about how, when and why stem damages occur and how to minimize them. The study stated that 4.3 percent of the trees were damaged. Out of these 88 percent was caused by the harvester and the rest, 12 percent, by the forwarder..

Large areas of Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) were planted in the 1970s - and '80s. The purpose of the fast-growing species was to increase growth and with short rotation periods allow a rapidly increased harvest level. Today a large proportion of the young forests owned by Holmen Skog, Iggesund are covered by Lodgepole pine and an active forest management is required to spread the harvested volume over time which is desirable by a market perspective. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the possibility of spreading the harvested volume of Lodgepole pine over time.

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.

In Sweden, harvesting pre-commercial Thinning (PCT) stems for energy purposes is a interesting way of financing the high cost of preparing dense stands for a profitable first conventional Thinning. This concept can be labelled bioenergy Thinning. The aim of this study was to quantify the productivity of a Vimek 404R light harvester with an accumulating Naarva-Grip cutting head during the bioenergy Thinning of a self-regenerated stand west of Sunnansjö in Dalarna. The stand was birch-dominated, contained 15 371 stems/ha, and measured on average 4,6 cm Dbh and 7 m tall. Even though the driver was well experienced with the machine, the stand in question was the first one that he ever thinned in this manner. Nevertheless, the driver strived to accumulate as many stems as possible during each crane cycle and chose to cut taller stems in half so as to make the handling and forwarding of the harvested stems easier.

A common goal in practical forest management is to maximize the yield, measured in economical terms. When a forest stand is thinned a so called inoptimality loss can arise due to non-optimal decisions. This means that the selected management schedule results in a lower net present value than the optimal one which lowers the profitability for the forest owner. Holmen Skog uses the term tract which means an aggregation of stands made before a management action. A tract should be delineated in different tract parts in connection with pre-Thinning planning if there is different bearing capacity within the tract, different Thinning grades should be used or if the tract contains a weaker part that should not be thinned.