Föryngring i stormfälld rekreationsskog
en jämförelse mellan föryngring i produktions-, rekreation/produktion och rekreationsskog.
When the storm Gudrun hit Sweden on the 8th and 9th of January, many recreational forests in southern Sweden blew down. For this reason there is a demand for new regeneration methods as to how these storm-felled areas should be regenerated and with what species.
In this study the forest is divided into three areas: production, recreation/production and recreation. The first area is a forest with production as main goal and these kinds of forests are located a bit from the city. The second type ? recreation/production forest ? has two equal goals: production and recreation, and is located close to the city. The last area ? recreation ? is located in the city itself and has recreation as the main goal.
Three different areas were investigated around the city of Växjö in southern Sweden. Fällorna, a production forest; Araby, a production/recreation forest, and Fylleryd a recreation forest.
The literature shows that a pure, untouched forest is not optimal as a recreational forest. The visitors do not like production forest either. Therefore, there is a need for different methods to manage the recreational forest to avoid it to be managed in the same way as the production forest. With adapted managing the forest has a better chance of being appreciated by the visitors.
Variation is the most important thing in a recreation forest. Variation increases the chance of the wish of the visitors to be fulfilled somewhere in the forest. Deciduous trees are preferred before conifers. A study shows that the older a tree is the more appreciated it is, and the more beautiful it is said to be. The number of conifers in Swedish recreational forests is often too high and therefore the number of deciduous trees should be increased.
Another study shows that a pillar hall of pines (Pinus sylvestris) is often ranked as number one by the visitors. This is a contradiction to the visitors? wish for a forest not managed by man.
After the storm Gudrun, few of the storm-felled areas have enough trees standing to be used as seed trees. Despite of this, many of the investigated storm-felled areas have enough seedlings to fulfill the demands of the ?utvärderingstabell? (table of evaluation) used in this study. Six of the 27 storm-felled investigated areas, did not fulfill the demands of the ?utvärderingstabell?. With this in mind, the municipality of Växjö can use natural regeneration in most of the storm-felled areas.
The inventory could not prove any trend when comparing the number of seed trees and the number of seedlings. Nor could any trend comparing the size of the area and number of seedlings be found.
After the inventory, ?beståndmål? (goal of the stands) was created with tree species distribution and number of plants in mind. These were adapted to the goals of the forests.