Quotation from a leaflet by the Nature Protection Unit of the Forest and Park Service 1996

Old-growth Taiga Forest
- A Challenge To Nature Protection

Contents:

Why protect old-growth forests?

Once lost, old-growth forests may never be replaced

Forests regenerate naturally

Inhabitants of old-growth forests are threatened

Why protect old-growth forests?

Old-growth taiga forest means a pristine boreal forest that is rich in decaying wood. Such forests are characterised by a varied age structure and continuous subtle changes.

Old-growth taiga forests constitute one of Finlands original ecosystems. Their future is being determined now. The large number of threatened forest species is an indication that the ecological threshold has already been crossed beyond which logging endangers the ecosystem and causes extinctions.

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Once lost, old-growth forests may never be replaced

There is little pristine old-growth taiga forest left, but there is a lot of commercial forest. Consequently, every time some of the former is cut, Finlands forest ecosystem becomes that much less diverse.

Mere aging of the trees does not turn a commercial stand into a natural old-growth forest. Commercial forest development is controlled by management so that it never resembles the original forest. Old-growth forest takes centuries to develop. Moreover, the entire species assemblage may never return.

Biodiversity is made up of genetic variability within a species and a large species assemblage and variety of habitats. Old-growth forests are biologically considerably richer than commercial ones and they have a different species assemblage.

Commercial forest in the context used here means tree stands subjected to cutting or silvicultural measures of various kinds. The main purpose of such a stand is timber production.

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Forests regenerate naturally

In old-growth forests there are clumps of trees of different ages, dead and decaying trees, and a specific microclimate. Wild fires, storms, insects and fungi alter the structure of the forest by killing and felling trees. New trees spring up in the gaps and fallen trees decay to the benefit of animal and plant specialists.

As Scots pines become old and growth ceases, their bark resembles a covering of scales. There are 600-700 year-old pines growing in our old-growth forests. Some of these are two centuries older than the city of Helsinki.

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Inhabitants of old-growth forests are threatened

Due to human activities, every 15th known species in Finland is in danger of disappearing. In almost fifty percent of the cases, forestry is the main cause. There are over 135 threatened species inhabiting old-growth forests, 64 of them being incapable of surviving elsewhere. They include species of fungi and insects living in and on dying and dead wood.

The number of species preferrring, or compeletely dependant on, natural forests is far greater than the number favouring commercial forests.

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