Impacts on forest management and forest state in southern Sweden 10 years after the storm Gudrun

Abstract

Abstract About 70 million m3 was damaged by the storm Gudrun that hit southern Sweden in January 2005, i.e. almost as much as the normal annual cut for the whole country. To establish any differences in forest state and forest management before and after the storm, measures such as growing stock, annual growth, age-class distribution, choice of species in regeneration and cleaning and thinning activities were studied for the area affected and the area unaffected by the storm. For all analyses, sample plots from the Swedish National Forest Inventory were used. Results based on mean values for the periods 2000–2004/2006–2010/2012–2016 showed that the total growing stock for the damaged area decreased significantly by ~30 million m3 directly after the storm but has now recovered to the same level as before the storm. Therefore, it seems clear that forest owners and forest managers made rational choices when aiming to restore the forest area. As expected , the annually cleaned area and the area in immediate need of cleaning increased significantly in the Gudrun area after the storm. No other significant changes in behaviour to reduce future storm damage risk could be detected.