We woke up to a steady rain, perfect for spending the day in the field. After breakfast, Leena, Mizue, and Heli Viiri picked us up about 9:00 and we headed south to see some equipment working in the field. Specifically, Deb was interested in see machines that pull stumps out of the ground after harvesting. I don’t really think this is a good idea from a sustainable forest point of view, but some Finns have good reasons, or at least think they have good reasons, to do it. Our first stop was at an atypical site; they were pulling pine roots and the site was not going to be reforested. The stumps are pulled, piled, allowed to dry a few months, and then moved to bigger piles by roads. From there they are hauled to bioenergy plants, chipped, and burned. Given the time, labor, and equipment expense, it doesn’t seem like it would be profitable, but they claim it is. We then saw a more typical operation pulling spruce roots (they have shallow root systems so they pull easier and with less soil disturbance). They had already pulled all the slash (small stems and branches) to the road to be hauled away for bioenergy.
After lunch in Kitee, we went to Heli’s research plots. She is investigating whether stump pulling changes the abundance of pine weevils. These little devils like to eat young seedlings, but the Finns have discovered that if they do some site preparation that leaves at least one square foot of mineral soil around the seedling, it is less likely to be destroyed by the weevils. So, the Finns do a lot of mounding (essentially flipping a piece of forest “sod” upside down and then planting the seedling in the middle of the mineral soil). But, the thought is that stumping may actually improve habitat. So…. under sporadic rain showers and thunder, we helped her collect samples from her trap-line of “fly traps”. The bugs fly into clear panels and drop to their deaths in a salt solution. Ahhh, science.
Tonight for dinner we walked down to a “Hungarian” restaurant. It was pretty good. Time to pack in preparation for Helsinki.
After lunch in Kitee, we went to Heli’s research plots. She is investigating whether stump pulling changes the abundance of pine weevils. These little devils like to eat young seedlings, but the Finns have discovered that if they do some site preparation that leaves at least one square foot of mineral soil around the seedling, it is less likely to be destroyed by the weevils. So, the Finns do a lot of mounding (essentially flipping a piece of forest “sod” upside down and then planting the seedling in the middle of the mineral soil). But, the thought is that stumping may actually improve habitat. So…. under sporadic rain showers and thunder, we helped her collect samples from her trap-line of “fly traps”. The bugs fly into clear panels and drop to their deaths in a salt solution. Ahhh, science.
No comments:
Post a Comment