Fragmentation and reduction of forest area is a threat for many forest species and their habitat. Deficiencies in forest quality, such as lack of dead wood and old trees, are one explanation of the threat. The most important action to prevent the continued loss of forest types is to protect forest, but also to restore and to create areas that not previously had high nature values. Hence one of the key strategic roles for Fritid- och Naturkontoret, Uppsala municipality, is to monitor biodiversity in the context of urban planning. The majority of the Uppsala municipality residents live in urban areas and most of them spend some of their spare time in natural areas in cities and their immediate surroundings. Exploitation in and around Uppsala is high, but it is important that there is enough nature close to houses to meet the residents? needs of recreation.

My final essay is a design proposal for a schoolyard that pertains to the senses. The proposal consists of an illustration plan and this paper. The design proposal takes start in sense stimulation to create a varied environment. The title leads to the concept ?surprisingly predictable?.

During the 20th century a significant proportion (about 15 %) of the peat-covered wetlands in Sweden were drained to improve forest productivity. Area wise, most of the forest drainage was done in northern Sweden, but relatively speaking a larger part of the wetlands have been drained in the southern parts of the country. Most often, the forest drainage resulted in increased forest growth, but failures were not unusual, and harmful effects, e.g. on species richness, have been a common cause for draining. Ditch cleaning is necessary for maintaining the ditches in good condition.

In Sweden today so-called "prescribed nature conservation burning" is performed due to the change in silvicultural law, certification and an increased knowledge regarding the field of fire in the forest landscape. The aim is to re-create structures and qualities made by the fire regimes of the past, though on a much smaller geographical scale. The structures and qualities to be re-created are for example broad leaf stands, trees with large diameter, heterogeneous stands regarding variables such as age and diameter. If we increase our knowledge of the constitution of forests characterized by fire, then we will be able to set goals for what achievements to reach both on landscape scale and stand scale. The aim of this paper is to try to describe how a stand from the past was composed regarding mainly the spatial arrangement and compare it with the stand of today in the same place. This to be done by using relict material, that is stumps and dead standing trees.

Energy is an essential part of the society and for a sustainable future we need to use the energy resources in a sustainable way. The forest is Sweden?s most important resource for renewable energy and a higher production combined with shorter rotation periods (time from planting to clear cutting) can increase the access to energy. The tree genus poplar (Populus spp.) is interesting as energy resource as it has both high production and short rotation period. But browsing ungulates are a major threat to the establishment of poplar plants and therefore the poplar plantations need to be fenced in today. To use fences is expensive and time consuming; this makes it interesting to find more cost-effective solutions where there is no need to fence. The aim with this study was to look at the ungulates? occupation rate and browsing pressure in poplar plantations without fence.

The incidence of many of the most common diseases in dairy cattle has been proven to be highest during the time closest to calving. It is possible that the current breeding strategy with 12 month calving intervals increases the risk for disease in dairy cattle, which is problematic concerning both animal welfare and for economic reasons. The economic incentives behind a calving interval of 12 to 13 months have mainly been based on milk- and feed- costs and no costs due to diseases or fertility disturbances have been included.The aim of this study was to see if a lengthening of the calving interval would result in lower disease frequency. The hypothesis is that cows with a planned calving interval of 15 months have a lower disease incidence than cows with a calving interval of 12 months due to less number of calvings. Therefore the difference in disease frequency should be larger when compared over a long period of time, such as over lifetime, since cows with a longer calving interval experience fewer calvings.The study was performed between August 17th, 1994, and January 24th, 2007.

Sweden has almost 600 000 hectares planted with lodgepole pine, and large areas are soon ready to be clear-felled. The provenances that have been planted are producing high level of permanently closed, so called serotinous, cones. In their natural setting, the Canadian boreal forest, these cones are opened mainly after crown fires when the heat make the resin between the cone scales melt, which releases the seeds. This is viewed as an adaption to the fire regimes that prevail over the natural distribution area of lodgepole pine. Because of the short flame-exposure that occurs in a crown fire, the seeds can survive.

A new type of forest tree seedling, called mini seedling, has been developed by the University of Dalarna in Garpenberg, Sweden. Compared to traditional containerized seedlings that are grown for 1 ? 2 years, mini seedlings are grown for only 10 weeks. The mini seedlings are small, easily planted, cost effective, and reduce the amount of chemicals used in the nursery. Research has shown that mini seedlings tend to have higher overall survival rates than traditional container seedlings.

The intention of this final thesis is to examine how to create a schoolyard that inspires children at the age of 6 ? 12 years to play and give them possibility to develop. To get a lot of knowledge in this subject, I have combined studies of literature with practical studies at Hosjöskolan in Falun. During my practical studies I have done interviews, walks in the area with the children and visited other schoolyards. I have based a design proposal for the schoolyard of Hosjöskolan on these studies.

The fungus Gremmeniella abietina causes damage to conifers that can lead to tree death. In 1999 and 2001 the pathogen caused severe attacks in Sweden, where about 500 000 ha of pine forest were affected. Trees of all ages were attacked, but mainly forests between 30-60 years that were ready for their first commercial thinning. After recommendations from the forest agency, sanitary fellings were made to trees that had more needle loss than 85%, a total of about 50 000 ha. Economic losses have been estimated to more than one billion SEK.

Not much is today known about how epiphytic lichens are effected by fire. A considerable part of the fires in Sweden today are prescribed fires for the purpose of environmental conservation. How these fires affect lichens is largely unknown. The aim of this study is to find out how epiphytic fruticose and foliose lichens on Scots pine are affected by fire, and to elucidate the relationship between fire intensity and the survival of lichens and later re-colonization. The study was performed at three locations just outside Umeå in Västerbotten that were burned 5-7 years earlier. In all locations there were larger groups of surviving Scots pines with varying amount of fire-damage in the crown, which enabled a reconstruction of fire intensity.

Not much is today known about how epiphytic lichens are effected by fire. A considerable part of the fires in Sweden today are prescribed fires for the purpose of environmental conservation. How these fires affect lichens is largely unknown. The aim of this study is to find out how epiphytic fruticose and foliose lichens on Scots pine are affected by fire, and to elucidate the relationship between fire intensity and the survival of lichens and later re-colonization. The study was performed at three locations just outside Umeå in Västerbotten that were burned 5-7 years earlier. In all locations there were larger groups of surviving Scots pines with varying amount of fire-damage in the crown, which enabled a reconstruction of fire intensity.

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.

In 1994 a new Forestry Act was accepted in Sweden. One of the aims of the law is to raise consideration forpreservation of biodiversity. Since the new law got accepted and some time has passed, there now lie someinterest in examining whether the law has been effective towards its purpose. Methods suitable for analysishave been examined during this study. The content of this pilot study is based around five parameters whichcan be used to validate the effects of the new law.

Since 1993 the Swedish Forestry Administration conducts a nation-wide inventory of wood-land key habitats covering all forest land in Sweden. The inventory aims at mapping and describing habitats where redlisted species occur or can be expected to occur. According to the inventory stand history is crucial to the presence of red-listed species. However, the current knowledge of stand history in woodland key habitats is very limited. The purpose of this work is to describe stand history in woodland key habitats, i.e. fire history, human activities - mainly cuttings - and structural changes.