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The Swedish Forestry Agency today reports the results of its latest inventory of damage caused by grazing in the Swedish forest by deer. The inventory shows that only three areas meet national targets.
Moose hunting begins in southern and central Sweden on October 12. The Swedish Forestry Agency is now coming out and urging the country’s hunters to hit shooting targets to reduce grazing damage in the forest, which the authority says costs the country’s forest owners and the forest industry more than seven thousand million crowns a year.
Go around the boat
Currently, only three of the country’s 132 elk management areas meet national goals of a maximum grazing damage ratio of five percent in pine forests.
“Unfortunately, there are many areas where damage is still at catastrophic levels, that is, where more than every fifth pine is damaged in a single year,” says games specialist Christer Kalén from the Swedish Forestry Agency in a press release. and continues:
– Most of these areas are in Götaland, but several are also in Svealand. It is time for all parties to work together more effectively to turn the tide in these areas. The long-term goal is for 7 out of 10 pine trees to be undamaged as the forest grows beyond the height that moose can graze. There is a long way to go before reaching that goal.
Flashes of light against the background
The damage that occurs in the pine forest through grazing often results in quality defects when the trees have reached the dimensions of wood, which can lead to degradation of the wood to pulpwood. If the grazing pressure is very strong, large areas of pine forest can suffer a sharp decline in growth and in the worst case die. These damages are estimated to cost the forestry industry up to SEK 7.2 billion a year.
– The increase in grazing damage in the forest in recent years has certainly been reversed, which is a ray of light in this context, but the number of damage is still far from the national goal, says Christer Kalén and continues:
– The positive is that landowners are investing more in pine to rejuvenate. It will make a difference in the long run. In many places, hunters have also reduced the moose population, but the decline must continue.
Game Damage Inventory Information:
The inventory is carried out in early summer in about half of Sweden’s 132 elk management areas, where approximately 8,000 young forests are visited by professional inventories. The results will be used primarily as a basis for decisions about elk hunting in elk management groups.
Source: Swedish Forestry Agency
The article was published on Friday, October 9, 2020
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