Post-fire forest management methods in Sweden: Societal perception and biological aspects
(2022) BIOK01 20221Degree Projects in Biology
- Abstract
- With an increasing global temperature, at rates twice as fast as the global average in the northern boreal forests, an increasing wildfire frequency is to be expected. Previous studies have shown that forest areas in Eurasia with high risk of wildfires today are expected to more than double in size in the following 30 years. This will have a great impact on the fire regime, biodiversity, economic and social quality as well as ecosystem services between forest and society in these areas. Sweden is one of many countries at risk, with forest cover being 60% of the country's total land cover. Furthermore, the forest products industry accounts for between 9-12% of Swedish industry’s total employment, exports, sales and added value. It is... (More)
- With an increasing global temperature, at rates twice as fast as the global average in the northern boreal forests, an increasing wildfire frequency is to be expected. Previous studies have shown that forest areas in Eurasia with high risk of wildfires today are expected to more than double in size in the following 30 years. This will have a great impact on the fire regime, biodiversity, economic and social quality as well as ecosystem services between forest and society in these areas. Sweden is one of many countries at risk, with forest cover being 60% of the country's total land cover. Furthermore, the forest products industry accounts for between 9-12% of Swedish industry’s total employment, exports, sales and added value. It is needless to say that the Swedish population is largely dependent on the forest and will be affected by these altered fire regimes on an biological and social level. However, little research has been done on the societal perceptions of wildfires and different post-fire forest management methods in the country. Furthermore, knowledge about societal perceptions in combination with biological aspects of different post-fire forest management options is of great interest. In this study, I analyzed vegetation data from five boreal forest sites in the Ljusdal fire complex, where 9500 hectare of forest burned down during the summer season 2018. I analyzed the vegetation cover based on fire intensity and the post-fire forest management method that was applied. Moreover, I also conducted a survey in order to gain perspective of the Swedish population's perceptions of wildfires and the forest management methods that could be realized after a wildfire. The results showed that vascular plant cover was significantly different between sites that had been affected by different degrees of fire severity as well as different post-fire forest management methods. Three years after the fire, the vascular plant ground cover and naturally generated pine seedling number was the highest at both of the unlogged fire-severity sites in contrast to the salvage-logged sites. However, the pine-seedlings proved slightly taller at the salvage-logged sites than at the unlogged sites. Regarding the societal perceptions, a small majority of participants prefered salvage-logging (42,4%) over leaving the forest unlogged (39,9%). There also proved a relationship between forest ownership and logging method, where people who own forest were more inclined to pick salvage-logging as the prefered post-fire forest management option. If forest owners as well as people with interest in forests were made aware of the forest soil properties potentially being negatively altered many decades post disturbance, their opinion might prove different. After all, leaving a forest unlogged might lead to a higher economical- and biological value than that which would be provided short-term by salvage-logging. Furthermore, a lot of the time, money and energy of forest owners could be spared since less interaction would be necessary and equal, if not higher, forest value would be achieved. (Less)
- Popular Abstract (Swedish)
- Skogsbränder - en biologisk gåva eller ett ekonomiskt nederlag?
I samband med ett allt varmare klimat, inte minst på de nordliga delarna av jordklotet, ökar även antalet stora skogsbränder i våra svenska skogar. Detta är förödande, inte minst för de skogstokiga svenska folket, utan också för de många skogsägarna och den svenska ekonomin i helhet. På många sätt kan däremot skogsbränderna också ses som en biologisk gåva, genom att förbättra markegenskaperna samt ge en ökad biologisk mångfald och långsiktiga biologiskt gynnsamma förhållanden. Inte ofta krockar dessa två samhällsintressen, med lite rum för kompromiss. Det ena måste ofta väljas över det andra, med begränsad möjlighet att göra båda parterna nöjda. Eller finns det ett sätt som... (More) - Skogsbränder - en biologisk gåva eller ett ekonomiskt nederlag?
I samband med ett allt varmare klimat, inte minst på de nordliga delarna av jordklotet, ökar även antalet stora skogsbränder i våra svenska skogar. Detta är förödande, inte minst för de skogstokiga svenska folket, utan också för de många skogsägarna och den svenska ekonomin i helhet. På många sätt kan däremot skogsbränderna också ses som en biologisk gåva, genom att förbättra markegenskaperna samt ge en ökad biologisk mångfald och långsiktiga biologiskt gynnsamma förhållanden. Inte ofta krockar dessa två samhällsintressen, med lite rum för kompromiss. Det ena måste ofta väljas över det andra, med begränsad möjlighet att göra båda parterna nöjda. Eller finns det ett sätt som är till förmån för båda?
Jag valde att undersöka denna fråga. Finns det ett sätt att ta hand om skog efter en brand som gynnar både samhälle, markägare och miljö? Efter den stora skogsbranden i Hälsingland 2018 visade sig en möjlighet att studera detta. Jag analyserade data över återväxt av olika växtarter i undervegetationen samt trädslaget tall i området som drabbats av skogsbrand och jämförde denna data mellan platser som drabbats i olika utsträckning av skogsbranden, samt mellan platser som efter branden antingen hade avverkats eller lämnats orört. Utöver det gjorde jag även en enkätundersökning, där jag bad personer med någon typ av intresse av skog eller skogsaktiviteter att berätta vad de tyckte och tänkte om skogsbränder och dessa metoder att hantera bränd skog.
Mina resultat visade att skog som lämnats orörd efter brand, oavsett hur intensiv, hade en högre grad återväxt av växtarter såsom lingon och mjölke. Den skogen hade också många fler groddplantor av tall. Däremot hade skogspartierna som avverkats fler tallplantor av högre höjd än de som fanns i de orörda områdena. Uppfattningarna om skogsbränder och vård av bränd skog var blandade. 42% av deltagarna tyckte att skog skulle avverkas efter en brand, och 39% att den skulle lämnas orörd. Resten visste inte vilket de föredrog. Det visade sig finnas en koppling mellan deltagarna som tyckte att skog skulle avverkas och ägande av skog, där de som ägde skog var mer benägna att tycka avverkning var det bästa alternativet.
De ekonomiska följderna av skogsbränder för skogsägare kan inte skjutas under mattan. Många är ekonomiskt begränsade i sina val av eftervård, där avverkning ses som det gynnsammaste och säkraste alternativet. Med mina resultat, hoppas jag att valmöjligheterna ska bli flera. Resultaten från min studie, att växtligheten slår tillbaka snabbare utan avverkning, kanske kan utgöra början till en förändring för skogsbrukssektorn. Att avstå från avverkning innebär trots allt mindre arbete, pengar och tid för avverkning och återplantering, samt eventuellt en lönsammare skog i framtiden med ett högre biologiskt värde. Kanske kan skogsbränder ses som både biologisk- och ekonomisk gåva i framtiden, för skogsägare så väl som skogstokiga.
Handledare: Natascha Kljun & Nils Droste
Examensarbete 15 hp i Biologi, BIOK01 2022
Biologiska institutionen, Lunds universitet (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9103175
- author
- Redegren Gomes, Julia
- supervisor
-
- Natascha Kljun LU
- Nils Droste LU
- organization
- course
- BIOK01 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9103175
- date added to LUP
- 2022-11-14 16:00:40
- date last changed
- 2022-11-14 16:00:40
@misc{9103175,
abstract = {{With an increasing global temperature, at rates twice as fast as the global average in the northern boreal forests, an increasing wildfire frequency is to be expected. Previous studies have shown that forest areas in Eurasia with high risk of wildfires today are expected to more than double in size in the following 30 years. This will have a great impact on the fire regime, biodiversity, economic and social quality as well as ecosystem services between forest and society in these areas. Sweden is one of many countries at risk, with forest cover being 60% of the country's total land cover. Furthermore, the forest products industry accounts for between 9-12% of Swedish industry’s total employment, exports, sales and added value. It is needless to say that the Swedish population is largely dependent on the forest and will be affected by these altered fire regimes on an biological and social level. However, little research has been done on the societal perceptions of wildfires and different post-fire forest management methods in the country. Furthermore, knowledge about societal perceptions in combination with biological aspects of different post-fire forest management options is of great interest. In this study, I analyzed vegetation data from five boreal forest sites in the Ljusdal fire complex, where 9500 hectare of forest burned down during the summer season 2018. I analyzed the vegetation cover based on fire intensity and the post-fire forest management method that was applied. Moreover, I also conducted a survey in order to gain perspective of the Swedish population's perceptions of wildfires and the forest management methods that could be realized after a wildfire. The results showed that vascular plant cover was significantly different between sites that had been affected by different degrees of fire severity as well as different post-fire forest management methods. Three years after the fire, the vascular plant ground cover and naturally generated pine seedling number was the highest at both of the unlogged fire-severity sites in contrast to the salvage-logged sites. However, the pine-seedlings proved slightly taller at the salvage-logged sites than at the unlogged sites. Regarding the societal perceptions, a small majority of participants prefered salvage-logging (42,4%) over leaving the forest unlogged (39,9%). There also proved a relationship between forest ownership and logging method, where people who own forest were more inclined to pick salvage-logging as the prefered post-fire forest management option. If forest owners as well as people with interest in forests were made aware of the forest soil properties potentially being negatively altered many decades post disturbance, their opinion might prove different. After all, leaving a forest unlogged might lead to a higher economical- and biological value than that which would be provided short-term by salvage-logging. Furthermore, a lot of the time, money and energy of forest owners could be spared since less interaction would be necessary and equal, if not higher, forest value would be achieved.}},
author = {{Redegren Gomes, Julia}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Post-fire forest management methods in Sweden: Societal perception and biological aspects}},
year = {{2022}},
}