Lynn and I were part of the group of forest owners who traveled to Scandinavia in June to learn about forestry in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The majority of the 35 people who went were from Oregon with a few from Washington and Idaho, and we all had an interest in learning about forestry practices in this part of the world.

Our first destination was Elmia Wood, billed as the world's largest forestry trade fair, held every four years on a tree farm near the city of Jonkoping, Sweden. This year's show was held at Bratteborgs Gard estate, a privately owned farm-forest which has 1000 hectares (2,500 acres) of forest. Elmia Wood used 370 acres for the show, where all kinds of forestry and harvesting equipment were shown actually working in the woods. There are walking trails through the forest to sites where harvesters and forwarders are cutting the trees, limbing them and cutting them to length, then stacking them at roadside. Other equipment demonstrated chipping or baling the limbs and leftover debris. There was also an area for sawmilling equipment to show the latest technology for their industry. Every aspect of forestry, from planting to harvest to hauling to end use, is shown. It is hard to describe, but we visitors are watching an active forestry fair. It is like visiting a logging site while the logging is being carried out with all the latest cutting edge technology. There is also an area of booths with smaller equipment such as chainsaws and hand tools. We saw several booths with GIS, GPS and other computer technology that would be applicable to a tree farm. We spent two days attending Elmia, and did not see it all, but there is much more to Sweden than this, so we had to travel on. Swedish forestry

We spent a day with people from the National Board of Forestry learning the history of Sweden's forest policies. Sweden has three major economic tree species: Scots pine, Norway spruce, and birch. We did see some native juniper, but they were shrubs rather then trees. Sweden's first Forestry Act was established in 1903 to assure replanting after harvest. It was modified over the years, but as the nature conservation movement began to influence forest policy, it was amended in 1974 with directives added to take into account forest benefits other than wood production. After the 1992 Rio Conference, a new national forest policy was established which gives natural diversity equal weight to forest production. (The conference in Brazil was the groundwork for the certification process we hear so much about today, and which I will discuss later).

In Sweden, 52% of the land area is in forest, and family forests own half of that. In Europe, only Finland has more forest per person. We learned that half of all Swedes are out in the forest at least twice a month, with the main goal of peace and recreation. In the Scandinavian countries, every person has a right to freely use the forests and the land. The "Right to Common Access" means you can hike, pick wild flowers, berries and mushrooms on private forestland. You can camp for one night on someone else's land. This principle is a difficult one for us to understand, what with our "No Trespassing" signs, but it is a long-standing tradition in countries that have very homogenous populations and where people have lived in the same area for generations.

I was struck by how neat the forests looked, with an understory of a low growing plant such as huckleberry or lingonberry, and tall pine and spruce trees with no attached dead branches. We were told that there is a fungus that destroys the dead branches of the pine trees so the trees look as if they have been pruned. This fungus is usually not a problem, but because there has been heavy rains in the last few years, the fungus growth has exploded, and is now attacking the live buds on the branches at the tops of the trees, killing them. Harvesting is being carried out to save the lumber before the trees are completely dead. After a final harvest the land is scarified and trees are replanted by hand, about 800 seedlings per acre on an average site. After 10 years, the seedlings are thinned using a brushcutter, then at 25-30 years there is the first commercial thinning, 50-70 years a second thinning, and at 70-120 years, the final harvest. After each harvest the limbs and debris are either chipped or baled and sold as bioenergy for power generation. This also keeps the forest floor clean for people who wish to visit the woods.

Editor's Note: Master Woodland Manager, Linda Butts is an Associate Editor of the Forest-Tree leader.

This is the first part of a two-part article.