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Leave low trees and shrubs in the buffer strips and maintain wood in different lagoon gradients

Habitat Function Type of work
Forest
Living environment, Soil system
Clear-cutting

Open landscape buffer strips will be established and maintained to maintain biodiversity and ecological connectivity. The buffer strips will also protect the forest from pesticides and chemically synthesised mineral fertilisers used on agricultural land. The recommended width of the open space buffer strips is an average of 5 metres, with an optimum of 1-10 metres.

Description of the action

Leave low trees and shrubs in the open landscape buffer strip and, if conditions are suitable, retain existing foot-drying trees/woody plants and flatwoods in the buffer strip and leave regenerating trees. Thickets may be established by thinning, particularly in site types where there is a higher risk of windthrow.

Why?

The buffer strips do not need to be left with large trees. Rather, it is more important to have low trees (e.g. dogwood, grey alder) and shrubs that are more typical of the edge. The buffer strips provide habitats and movement corridors for birds and mammals. The buffer strips also provide habitats for plants, fungi and mosses that cannot temporarily grow in an area without trees in case of a significant change in conditions. It is also prudent not to disturb the established buffer strips. Technologically, it is possible to cut larger trees without driving the harvester onto the buffer strip and to concentrate the followed assortments next to the buffer strip, so that the forwarder does not have to drive on the buffer strip either.