Appendix: Management scenarios and specific treatments rules applied to forest domains in the scenarios
The Heureka system and its software RegWise for strategic planning were used in the study. Heureka was developed by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and aiming at long-term planning and analyses of forest management strategies at several scales, reaching from the stand level to regional scenario analyses (Wikström et al. 2011). RegWisecan conduct analyses and theoretical exploration of management scenarios at the national or regional level.
In Heureka, forest stands can be classified into several domains according to user-defined stand characteristics. For each domain, specific treatments and rules for their application can be assigned (Wikström et al. 2011). For reindeer herding, lichen-dominated forest stands are essential as grazing grounds, as well as stands rich in arboreal lichens, classified in this study as forests on peat lands. In the reindeer scenario (I), domains for each of these two forest types were defined, derived from the soil classification data, each with specific treatment rules described below.
Contrastingly, all forest types where treated in one domain with the same management, irrespective of their ground vegetation, in the timber scenario (II).
Reference:
Wikström P, Edenius L, Elfving B, Eriksson LO, Lämås T, Sonesson J, Öhman K, Wallerman J, Waller C, Klintebäck F 2011: The Heureka Forestry Decision Support System: An Overview. Mathematical and Computational Forestry & Natural-Resource Sciences. 3: 87-94.
Reindeer scenario
Domain: Lichen rich grounds
Forest regeneration methods
Methods applied to regenerate forests depend on soil moisture.
On dry and mesic soils, plantation is applied on 70 % of the area, 20 % is regenerated with seed trees,and sowing on the remaining 10 %. Allmoist soils are regenerated by plantation.
Tree species when planting
Selection of tree species for plantation depends on soil moisture.
All dry soils areas areplanted with pine. On mesic soils 80 % of the areasare planted with pine and to 20 % by spruce. On moist soils 50%are planted by pine and spruce, respectively.
Areas of soil scarification
Application of soil scarification depends on a) the method of forest regeneration (plantation / sowing or seed trees) and b) soil moisture.
- In forests regenerated by plantation or sowing on dry soilsis 95 % of the area is not scarified, while burning occurs on the remaining 5 %. On mesic soils,75 % of the area is not scarified, burning occurs on 5 %, and the remaining 20 % are scarified.
On moist soils,45 % of the area is notscarified, burning occurs on 5 %, and 50% isscarified.
- Forests regenerated with seed trees on dry soilsare not scarified at all, while on mesic soils 20 % of the area is scarified. On moist soils 50 % of the area is not scarified and scarified, respectively.
Pre-commercial thinning
Stem density is 1,600 stems per ha after pre-commercial thinning.
Rotation time
Rotation times are set to minimum 30 % higher than lowest allowable age for clear-cut according to the Swedish Forestry Act.
Extraction of harvest residues
Stump removal does not occur. Logging residues are removed where the percentage of spruce volume is at least 40 % of total volume.
Fertilization
Fertilization does not occur in this domain.
Nature Conservation
5 % of the area is set aside for free development for conservation purposes.
Domain: Peatland Forests
Forest regeneration methods
Methods applied to regenerate forests depend on soil moisture.
On dry soils, plantation is applied on 80 % of the area and 20 % is regenerated with seed trees. All mesic and moist soils are regenerated by plantation.
Tree species when planting
Selection of tree species for plantation depends on soil moisture.
All dry soils areas areplanted with pine.On mesic soils 80 % of the areasare planted with pine and to 20 % by spruce. On moist soils 50%are planted with pine and spruce, respectively.
Areas of Soil scarification
Application of soil scarification depends on a) the method of forest regeneration (plantation / sowing or seed trees) and b) soil moisture.
- In forests regenerated by plantation or sowing on dry soilsis 75 % of the area not scarified at all, burning occurs on 5 %, and the remaining 20 %are scarified.
Onmesic soils 65 % of the area is not scarified, burning occurs on 5 %, and the remaining 30 % are scarified.
On moist soils55 % of the area is notscarified, burning occurs on 5 %, and 40 % isscarified.
- Forests regenerated with seed trees on dry soilsare not scarified on 80 % of the area, and scarified on the remaining 20 %.
On mesic soils, 70 % of the area is not scarified and the remaining 30 % are scarified.
On moist soils 60 % of the area isnot scarified and 40 % is scarified.
Pre-commercial thinning
Stem density is 2000 stems per ha after pre-commercial thinning.
Rotation time
Rotation times are set to minimum 30 % higher than lowest allowable age for clear-cut according to the Swedish Forestry Act.
Extraction of harvest residues
Stump removal does not occur. Logging residues are removed where the percentage of spruce volume of total volume is at least 40 %.
Fertilization
Fertilization does not occur in this domain.
Nature Conservation
5 % of the area is set aside for free development for conservation purposes.
Domain: Other forest types
Forest regeneration
Methods applied to regenerate forests depend on soil moisture.
On dry soils plantation is applied on 60 % of the area, 30 % is regenerated with seed trees, and sowing on the remaining 10 %.
On mesic soils,plantation is applied on 80 % of the area and 20 % is regenerated with seed trees.
All moist soils are regenerated by plantation.
Tree species when planting
Selection of tree species for plantation depends on soil moisture and site index. Site index (SI) is expressed as expected height of dominant trees at 100 years of total age.
On dry soils80 % are planted with pine and 20 % with spruce.
On mesic soils with SI22 m,80 % are planted with pine and 20 % with spruce.
On mesic soils with SI between 22 and 26 m, 62%are planted with pine, and 38 % with spruce.
On mesic soils with SI > 26 m, 50 %are planted with pine and spruce, respectively.
On moist soils 49 % are planted with pine and 51 % with spruce.
Areas of soil scarification
Application of soil scarification depends on a) the method of forest regeneration (plantation / sowing or seed trees) and b) soil moisture.
- In forests regenerated by plantation or sowing on dry soils 75 % of the area is not scarified, burning occurs on the 5 %, and 20 % is scarified.
On mesic soils 65 % is not scarified, burning occurs on 5 %, and the remaining 30 % are scarified.
On moist soils 45 % of the area is notscarified, burning occurs on 5 %, and 50 % are scarified.
- Forests regenerated with seed trees on dry soils are not scarified on 80 %of the area and scarified on 20 %. Onmesic soils 70 % are not scarifiedand 30 % scarified.OnMoist soils 50 % of the area is not scarified and scarified, respectively.
Pre-commercial thinning
Stem density is 1,600 stems per ha after pre-commercial thinning.
Rotation time
Rotation times are set to minimum 30 % higher than lowest allowable age for clear-cut according to the Swedish Forestry Act.
Extraction of harvest residues
Stump removal does not occur. Logging residues are removed if the percentage of spruce volume of total volume is at least 60 %.
Fertilization
Fertilization does not occur in this domain.
Nature Conservation
5 % of the area is set aside for free development for conservation purposes.
Timber scenario
All types of forest are treated the same way in one domain.
Forest regeneration
Methods applied to regenerate forests depend on soil moisture.
On dry soilsplantation is applied on 60 % of the area, 30 % regenerated with seed trees, and sowing on the remaining10 %.
On mesic soils plantation is applied on 80 % of the area and 20 % regeneratedwith seed trees. All moist soils are regenerated with plantation.
Tree species when planting
Selection of tree species for plantation areas depends on soil moisture and site index. Site index (SI) is expressed as expected height of dominant trees at 100 years of total age.
On dry soils,80 % are planted with pine and 20 % with spruce.
On mesic soils with SI22 m, 57 % are planted with pine, 23 % with spruce, and 20 % with lodgepole pine.
On mesic soils with SI between 22 and 26 m,52 % are planted with pine, 38 % with spruce, and 10 % with lodgepole pine.
On mesic soils with SI > 26 m, 50 % are planted with pine and spruce, respectively.
On moist soils, 49 % are planted with pine and 51 % with spruce.
Areas of soil scarification
Application of soil scarification depends on a) the method of forest regeneration (plantation / sowing or seed trees) and b) soil moisture.
- In forests regenerated by plantation or sowing on dry soilsis 11 % of the area not scarified at all, burning occurs on 5 %, and 89 % is scarified. On mesic soils 1 % of the area is not scarified, burning occurs on 1 %, and the remaining 98 % are scarified. On moist soils2 % of the area is not scarified, burning occurs on 1 % and 97 % isscarified.
- In forests regenerated with seed trees on dry soilsis 67 %of the area not scarifiedand32 % scarified. Burning occurs on 1 %. On mesic soils, 19 % of the area isnot scarified and 80 % is scarified. Burning occurs on 1 %. On moist soils61 % of the area is not scarified and 39 % is scarified. Burning is not applied.
Pre-commercial thinning
Stem density after pre-commercial thinning is calculated as follows
Stem density = α+β*Site Index (SI).
For pine stands = 600 + 80*SI, spruce stands = 400+70*SI and for deciduous stands = 1200 + 25*SI.
Rotation time
Rotation times are set to maximum 10 %lower than lowest allowable age for clear-cut according to the Swedish Forestry Act.
Extraction of harvest residues
Stump removal is allowed for spruce stumps after clear-cut if diameter of stump > 15 cm. Logging residues are removed where the percentage of spruce volume of total volume is at least 60 %.
Fertilization
Fertilization is applied up to three times per rotation period.
Nature Conservation
5 % of the area is set aside for free development for conservation purposes.
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