26-01-2016 - Report by Timo Saksa, Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO Research Group 3.02.00
The workshop on "Mechanized and efficient silviculture" took place from November 25-26, 2015 at the Natural Resources Institute (Luke), Suonenjoki Research Unit, Finland.
It attracted 28 participants from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden. This OSCAR Workshop (Nordic Forest Research SNS/Operating Systems for Centre of Advanced Research 2011-2015) was organized jointly by Luke and the Latvian State Forest Research Institute Silava, and co-sponsored by IUFRO Research Group 3.02.00 Stand establishment and treatment.
(http://www.metla.fi/tapahtumat/2015/oscar-workshop/programme.htm)
The main objectives of the workshop were to present ongoing research related to mechanized silviculture in the Nordic and Baltic countries and to discuss future research needs. State-of-the-art reports about mechanized silviculture in Sweden and Finland were delivered. The Swedish review covered topics such as: inverting; interface from nursery to planting machine; feeding of seedlings in planting device; identification of planting spots and obstacles as well as planting device development without compactation. The Finnish contribution focused on mechanized planting and young stand management. Finally, the differences between the Swedish and Finnish Scots pine management cultures were discussed.
Ongoing research projects in forest regeneration, drainage and management of young stands in the Baltic countries were also presented. An overview of the management of Latvia's state forests was followed by a state-of-the-art review of the ongoing research activities in mechanization of silviculture in Latvia. In addition, the work productivity of wood ash forest fertilization was addressed. Further topics included forest regeneration and young stand management in Estonia, and SeedPAD, a new and efficient Scots pine regeneration method in Northern Sweden. New ways of young stand management were showcased with a special focus on the productivity of the Vimek harvester and forwarder, and the Fixteri FX15a small-tree bundlers, whose work processes and productivity in early pine dominated thinnings were discussed. An overview of the evolution of innovative systems for small diameter tree harvest in Sweden and information on biocontrol methods against hardwood sprouting using Chondrostereum purpureum rounded off the program.
At the workshop the need for further Nordic-Baltic co-operation was strongly emphasized. Co-operation in research activities as well as in the dissemination of new research findings and the deployment of innovative methods were widely discussed.
Workshop proceedings will be published in the beginning of 2016. The next workshop on silvicultural technology will be held in Umea, Sweden, in May, 2016.