October 21, 2005

As much as 5 – 15 million cubic meters of living forest risk being attacked by bark beetles in the course of the next four years.
If 2 – 3 million cubic meters of storm-felled timber will be left lying in the forest over the next summer, Sweden may be confronted with a more serious insect problem than ever before. This is the conclusion drawn by the National Board of Forestry in its second report to the Swedish Government concerning the monitoring of insect attacks after the storm Gudrun. Processing of the storm-felled timber has progressed better than expected. Nevertheless the National Board of Forestry estimates that in mid-September there will still be almost 20 million cubic meters of unprocessed storm-felled spruce. As the pace of lumbering is slowing down the risk increases that several smaller areas of felled timber and individual trees will be left in the forest.
According to recent estimates as much as 2 – 3 million cubic meters of unprocessed spruce may be left lying in the forest during the summer of 2006, which increases the risk of extensive bark beetle populations in the years 2007 – 2008.
The National Board of Forestry monitors the distribution and propagation of bark beetles by means of pheromone traps. In course of the autumn the Board will make a population inventory where it will “count” this year’s populations of bark beetles.