Old forests|HS related the rotten wood requirement proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to the 20 southernmost national parks. The result is surprising.
When old in the opinion of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, there should be 40–50 cubic hectares of rotten wood in forests protected as forests when it comes to southern Finland.
The ministry has proposed this in the set of criteria, which is used to map the state forests and protect the old forests found in them.
The requirement of 40–50 cubic meters of rotten wood is strict if you compare it to existing protected areas.
Southern Finland’s forest protection program Metso expects at least 10 cubic meters of rotten wood per hectare from protected forests.
In the current protected areas, there is an average of about 20 cubic meters of rotten wood per hectare, in economic forests, again, about five cubic meters per hectare.
The Ministry of the Environment has proposed the amount of decaying wood in old forests in Southern Finland to be 20 cubic meters per hectare.
National parks are not specifically demarcated or established specifically for the protection of old forests, but they are protected areas well known to Finns. They often have a history of commercial forests, but also more nature values than the average commercial forest.
Since national parks are protected areas familiar to many, HS asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for information on the amount of decaying trees in the national parks in order to compare the proposal.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry proposes lower decay wood requirements for the central and northern forests. Therefore, not all national parks have been taken into consideration.
The 20 southernmost national parks were included in the table. Therefore, the Pyhä-Häki National Park in Central Finland, for example, was excluded from the review. There is plenty of rotten wood in Pyhä-Häki.
Marine national parks have also been left out, i.e. the national parks of the Archipelago Sea, the Back Sea, the Eastern Gulf of Finland and the Tammisaari Archipelago are missing from the list.
There are a total of 41 national parks in Finland.
National parks the amount of rotten wood was last measured 20 years ago. The information in the table is therefore old. On the other hand, in the case of many national parks, the amount of rotten wood better describes the time when the parks were established than the present.
For example, Etelä Konnevesi National Park was established 20 years ago on the border between Central Finland and Northern Finland. There is also an old forest in the area.
At the time of its foundation, the park had abundant decaying trees: more than 20 cubic meters per hectare. However, there should have been twice as much decayed wood, so that its nature values would have been sufficient for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to exceed the protection threshold.
There is probably more rotten wood now than there was 20 years ago, because the storm Asta felled trees in the area in July 2010.
At the farthest end of the decaying trees is Isojärvi National Park in Pirkanmaa. The park’s website says this:
“However, in terrain with difficult access, forest areas have been spared from logging, for example in Kalakorve, Vahtervuori and Hevosjärvi. These ecologically valuable primeval forests can be recognized by the large amount of decaying wood. Rotting wood is a means of survival for numerous endangered snakes and invertebrates.”
of the EU according to the diversity strategy, member countries must protect all natural forests and all old forests. Prime minister Petteri Orpo (kok) promised in the election exam before the parliamentary elections that the old state forests would be protected. The matter has been recorded in the government’s program.
Protection of old forests is one way to stop nature loss.
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