Principles of sustainable forest management

Abstract

The Royal Forester A. D. Israel Ström made the statement cited above in his 1822 book ”Förslag till en Förbättrad Skogshushållning i Sverige” (A Proposal for Improved Forest Husbandry in Sweden), which was the main textbook on the subject in Sweden for almost a century. He was uncritically in favour of systematic clear-felling and the development of single aged stands. Israel Ström and his followers taught and defended clear-cutting in an era in which unregulated forest use was common. They rejected the method of selective use and of tree and branch harvesting practiced in Germany and in France. During the period since 1800 a number of different periods in south Swedish forestry can be identified, before 1820 natural householding was practiced, where forest were not industrially used in any significant degree, except in the mining areas in Bergslagen. During the period of 1820–1890, the influence of the Royal forester Israel af Ström was felt, leading to ordered clear-cutting systems, and the development of forest yield tables, production planning and growth promotion systems. In the period 1890–1910 much open land was replanted, due to a perceived lack of forests. During 1905 the first Swedish forest management law was enacted, stipulating the requirements placed on forest regeneration (Skogen-Sveriges Nationalatlas 1990).

”The soil gives a larger yield when one changes the species of tree seeds, a thing I am convinced about through my own observations. The soil also gives a larger yield when different species adapted to one another are allowed to grow together, however, one of them ought to belong to the group of deeply rooted and the other to shallow rooted species, for example: Oak with Beech, Ash or Elm; Beech with Scots Pine; Pine with Larch and so forth” (Israel af Ström 1822)