Strategic multiresource planning of a Swedish boreal forest landscape

In strategic planning of timber production, long-term production potential is sought after. Therefore, planning is preferably based on unbiased data of known precision provided by objective (probability sampling) inventories. Sample plots are located in a grid, in tracts, or in sample stands in the forest area. The sampling procedure can also provide data for individual trees, thus improving the likelihood of good projections. For strategic planning of timber production, spatial aspects have only moderate impact; consequently, samples and nonspatial analyses are sufficient. However, concern about non-timber forest resources has increased in the last few decades. For many of these resources, spatial aspects are more important than they are for timber production alone. For example, the spatial distribution of habitats is a significant factor in maintaining biodiversity in managed landscapes. This makes strategic multiresource forest management planning based on traditional samples of plots or stands inappropriate. In this study, different management plans were designed aiming at both timber production and maintaining biodiversity in a boreal Swedish forest landscape (of approximately 10 000 ha). The planning procedure was based on timber production data from the stand register and from an inventory of a stratified sample of stands (i.e. acquired by subjective and objective methods respectively) and a survey of nature conservation values. Both timber production outcomes and effects on biodiversity were evaluated. In the different alternative plans, various silvicultural treatments, e.g. thinning regimes, extended rotation ages, prescribed burning, and protected forest, were applied in different areas. The net present value of timber production was maximised under the different management alternatives. This paper describes the procedure for creating a flexible planning process, achieved by delineating areas designated for specific silvicultural treatments in a geographic information system (GIS), overlaying of these maps with the forest map, and creating new strata (i.e. after the field inventory) and artificial sample stands.