Live storage and drying of storm-felled Norwayspruce (Picea abies, L. Karst.) and Scots pine (Pinussylvestris L.) trees

• Storm-felled trees left in the forest for a shorter or longer period, affect the quality of the logs. The change in quality ismainly because of attack of fungi and insects, which in turn depends on the moisture content (MC) of the sapwood. Thepurpose of this study was to receive more knowledge about drying of storm-felled trees by investigating how fast winterstorm-felled Norway spruce and Scots pine dried when left in the forest. Sixteen storm-felled spruces with part of the rootsstill in ground contact were selected from three stands and in addition to 10 pines from one of the stands. The trees wereexamined for MC in the sapwood until 21 months after the storm. This study indicates that wind-thrown trees with rootsstill connected to the soil can survive one summer without any value loss caused by draught, fungi and insects. The standconditions can be of importance as the storm-felled trees in the stand, with scattered windthrow, were in best condition afterone year, as they were shadowed by the trees still standing. Comparing spruces and pines with the stand with scatteredwindthrow, pines were more sensitive to drought and reached critical MC earlier.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Forestry and Wood Technology

Skog och träteknik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)