Browsing by discipline "Skoglig ekologi och resurshushållning"

Primary peat formation, infilling (terrestrialization) and paludification are the three main kinds of peatland formation processes. A peatland can develop over previously drier mineral soil if water table level rises or previously formed mire grows or expands. In Finland, the expansion of mires has been occasionally fast and in major part of ombrotrophic raised bogs it has occured while the mire has been in the minerotrophic fen stage. However, based on previous studies there have been different speculations whether the paludification still continues. Paludification study site at the edge of peatland and forested mineral soil was established in Häädetkeidas Strict Nature Reserve in year 1931. The study site, with a set of 4 transects, was studied in 1931, 1945, 1957 and 1997. Vegetation analysis on these permanent transects was repeated in 2016 as a part of this thesis. The aim of this study was to describe the variation of vegetation at the edge of the mire and forested mineral soil and study how the vegetation and plant species assemblies have changed between the years 1931–2016. A long-term vegetation study can reveal whether the species have changed from forest-dominated species to peatland-dominated species and does the paludification process still continue. The paludification process was studied by estimating the canopy-cover of ground layer and field layer vegetation and litter cover, measuring peat thickness, the thickness of aerated peat layer and anoxic peat layer and forest cover in four transects, consisting of 180 subplots. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was used to describe the data. Ground and field layer vegetation were examined by comparing the species’ average cover and frequencies. Environmental variables were studied by correlation analysis. Differences in peat thickness and in the coverage of Sphagnum-mosses between the examination years were studied with oneway variance analysis and t-test. In all four transects the coverage of Sphagnum-mosses had increased between the years 1931 and 2016. The coverage of forest mosses had decreased in two out of four transects. Succession related changes in species were observed in both vegetation layers. There was variation in the vegetation development between the transects and they seemed to be in different stages of the succession and paludification processes. In 93 percent of the study plots the thickness of peat layer had increased during the last 19 years. The changes in vegetation between the years 1931 and 2016 as well as the growth of the peat layer suggests that the paludification process still continues.

Tässä työssä tarkastellaan hakkuu-uramenetelmän kilpailukykyä ajouramenetelmään verrattuna erityisesti turvemaiden puunkorjuussa. Menetelmien välisistä edullisuussuhteista eri oloissa on hyvin vähän aikaisempaa tutkimustietoa. Hakkuu-uramenetelmä on harvennushakkuisiin soveltuva työmenetelmä, joka perustuu ajourien väliin tehtäviin hakkuu-uriin, joita käyttää vain hakkuukone. Hakkuu-urien avulla ajouraväliä voidaan säätää välillä 20 - 40 metriä. Hakkuu-urasta käytetään myös nimitystä ”haamu-ura”, sillä se on normaalia ajouraa kapeampi ja varsin huomaamaton maastossa. Vertailumenetelmänä on perinteinen ajouramenetelmä, jossa hakkuukone ja metsätraktori käyttävät samoja uria ja ajouraväli on noin 20 metriä. Tutkimusongelmaa lähestyttiin tarkastelemalla miten työmenetelmien välinen kilpailukyky muuttuu siirryttäessä kangasmaan ensiharvennuksesta turvemaan ensiharvennukseen. Kilpailukyvyn näkökulmia olivat hakkuun ja metsäkuljetuksen tuottavuus, korjuukustannus ja korjuujälki. Tutkimus rajattiin kesäaikana tapahtuvaan puunkorjuuseen. Työn tuottavuutta tutkittiin aikatutkimuksella kangas- ja turvemaan olosuhteissa molemmilla työmenetelmillä. Aikatutkimusaineiston perusteella laadittiin hakkuun tuottavuutta kuvaavat lineaariset regressiomallit. Työn tuottavuuden lisäksi kenttäkokeessa tutkittiin korjuun kustannuksia ja korjuujälkeä. Kenttäkokeen tutkimustulosten tueksi haastateltiin lisäksi hakkuu-uramenetelmää käyttäviä urakoitsijoita ja heidän urakanantajiaan. Haastattelun avulla pyrittiin selvittämään parhaat käytännöt hakkuu-uramenetelmän käytöstä erilaisissa leimikoissa ja olosuhteissa. Hakkuu-uramenetelmän kilpailukyky hakkuun tuottavuuden ja kustannusten osalta on parhaimmillaan tiheissä puustoissa. Turvemaille tyypilliset olosuhteet, kuten harva puusto ja alhainen hakkuukertymä heikentävät hakkuu-uramenetelmän kilpailukykyä. Hakkuu-uramenetelmän käyttö tuottaa ajouramenetelmää suuremman puutavaran tienvarsitiheyden, jonka vaikutus metsäkuljetuksen tuottavuuteen ja kustannuksiin on edullinen. Ajouravälin kasvattaminen 40 metriin turvemaalla ei kuitenkaan ollut mahdollista, joten hakkuu-uramenetelmän tienvarsitiheys jäi lähes samalle tasolle ajouramenetelmän kanssa. Ongelmana hakkuu-uramenetelmällä oli myös ajouramenetelmää pienemmät kourakasat. Kasakoko on kuitenkin paljon kiinni hakkuukoneen kuljettajan työskentelytottumuksista. Korjuujälki oli molemmilla menetelmillä varsin hyvä, mutta hakkuu-uramenetelmän kilpailukyky parani kuitenkin suhteessa ajouramenetelmään turvemaalle siirryttäessä.

The Finnish Forest Center produces forest resource data for the use of land owners and the actors in the forestry sector. The data is produced mainly by means of airborne laser scanning (ALS), and it is managed in a nationwide Aarni- forest resource information system. The produced data also includes stand-specific proposals for harvesting and silvicultural treatment. These are usually generated by a simulation, which also provides suggestion for a year of the action. The collection of forest resource data is based on the Area-based approach (ABA). In the method, the forest charac-ters, such as tree attributes measured on field sample plots, are predicted to the whole invention area by the corre-sponding laser- and aerial photo features. Forest characters are predicted to the grid cells 16 x 16 meters in size. In Aarni, the treatment simulation is based on the averages of the tree attributes generalized from the grid cells to the stand. The method does not regard a possible within-stand variation in tree density, which may cause, for ex-ample, delayed thinning proposals especially for the stands with grouped trees. The main aims of this study were: 1. To create a new method in which, in addition to the tree attributes, the subsequent treatment and its timing were simulated to grid cells. After that, special decision rules were created to derive the treatment from the grid cells to the stand. 2. To compare the treatments derived with the decision rules with the normal Aarni simulation of 291 field-surveyed stands to determine which method is better. A related action was also taken: A relationship between within-stand variation and a timing of the simulated treat-ments was also surveyed. This was accomplished by comparing the deviation of tree attributes of the grid cells (e.g. basal-area) with the corresponding attributes of the stand. Presumption was that, particularly in the stands with grouped trees, the problem of delayed thinning could be reduced by using decision rules. The results suggest that the decision rule method gives slightly better results than Aarni simulation in the case of the timing of treatments. The method gave the best results in the young stands where the field treatment proposal was first thinning. The deviation of the basal area of trees in the grid cells appeared to be slightly larger than aver-age in the stands with a large variation in tree density. In these particular stands, the decision rules mostly derived better timing for thinning than normal Aarni simulation.

The largest wetland drainage project in Michigan was initiated in 1912 near the town of Seney in the eastern Upper Peninsula. This project included the construction of a series of drainage ditches intended to prepare the land for agricultural use. The largest of these ditches was the 35 km-long Walsh Ditch. Much of the drained wetland affected by the Walsh Ditch is now managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of Seney National Wildlife Refuge (Seney NWR). Starting in 2002, a series of earthen ditch plugs were installed along the length of the ditch found within Seney NWR (and adjacent to the Seney Wilderness Area) in an attempt to restore the hydrology and ecological integrity to the affected wetlands and streams. The plugs North of C-3 Pool were completed in 2002. The ditch plugs South of C-3 Pool were completed in 2005. This study explores the effect of the ditch plugs on the hydrology and vegetation structure in the adjacent landscape north of C-3 Pool at multiple scales. Plot level measurements of hydrology and vegetation, combined with an analysis of landcover change over the entire study area, indicate that some areas are converting from artificial upland communities created by wetland drainage to more natural wetland community types. Mortality of upland tree species and colonization by typical wetland species are good indications that these sites will continue to develop into wetland ecosystems over time. However, some areas have shown no response to the hydrologic restoration. This is expected, as areas of the landscape were upland (referred to as “pine islands” in the literature) before Walsh Ditch and should remain so as natural hydrology is restored to the area. Landcover change analysis showed a decrease in open water of 90.82 ha, a decrease of upland area of 67.88 ha and an increase in wetland area of 151.88 ha. The areas of change were concentrated around stream channels and in the area just east of Walsh Ditch. With time, it is possible that areas further removed from the ditch will show a shift towards more natural hydrology and vegetation composition, but for the areas furthest removed from the ditch this may require active management.

Smallholder tree plantations possess a substantial capacity to produce sustainable timber material, while providing additional income to farmers. This thesis studies the effects of forest management practices to tree growth and tree quality in smallholder pine woodlots in Tanzania. The analysed data consists of woodlot inventory measurements and farmer interviews from four villages in Njombe region. Additionally, key-informant interviews were conducted with relevant stakeholders to briefly explore the timber value-chain of the region. The results indicated that variety of factors affect to the conditions of the smallholder woodlots in the case study area. The main finding was that implemented forest management practices had varying and complex effect on both, tree growth and quality. While some of the practices were observed to be associated with better growth performance, some were also observed to have a negative effect on growth. However, large variety persisted between these effects. This indicates that it is of high importance how practices are done, rather than what sort of individual practices are implemented. Similar observations were made regarding the connection between tree quality, which was assessed by rate of various defects in trees. Alarmingly, the amount of implemented practices was observed to generally increase the share of trees with severe defects. This further highlights the importance of the quality of forest management. Furthermore, the effect of seed and seedling origin to tree growth and quality was analyzed. There was clear improvement in growth with stand established from seedling acquired from private or governmental nurseries, compared to seedlings grown by farmers themselves. This relates to seed origin, as in nurseries the seedlings are generally grown from seeds of controlled breeding programmes, whereas the farmers normally collect the seeds where they can find them. However, seed or seedling origin did not have any major effect on the rate of observed defects, indicating that the forest management practices together with unmeasured site characteristics play a dominant role here. The key findings of this thesis highlight the importance of market demand for timber, as in long-term, the tree plantations are only managed productively when there are markets where the timber can be sold. In the case study area, the market demand was high, and in some ways, even too high, as even poor quality trees were generally sold easily, though at reduced price. This is a result of limited governmental forest plantation resources failing to meet the growing domestic demand for sawn timber. Too high demand may cause an incentive not to invest in improvement of plantation performance, and therefore prevent development of the whole processing-chain. One solution to this would be introducing adequate quality-based timber pricing system. If correctly done, this would create appropriate incentive for smallholders to invest in their tree plantation management to be able to receive price premiums for good quality trees. However, many obstacles remain. For example, bad accessibility to smallholder woodlots is preventing cost-effective transportation of roundwood to be processed in stationary sawmills with improved sawing machinery. As a general conclusion, there is substantial potential in smallholder tree plantations to provide timber to growing global demand. However, in large parts, this potential is still un-tapped, and significant support efforts are needed to be able to provide good quality material and to access production of value-added products for domestic and export markets. Nevertheless, in Tanzania smallholder tree plantations are already providing timber to domestic markets, and the importance is only increasing as other sources fail to meet to the ever-growing demand. If adequate amount of land is available, and farmers have equal possibilities to participate, smallholder tree growing can provide sustainable source of timber, while also contributing to the improvement of rural livelihoods.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to find out what kind of views Finnish forest professionals have concerning forest data that’s based on laser scanning. Lately there have been a lot of changes in forest organizations and in the forest professional’s work environment. One of these big changes is that forest data based on laser scanning is becoming a part of operative forest planning. Extensive mapping of forest areas is more often done with airplane or satellite remote sensing. This way it is possible to cut down costs and make mapping more efficient by reducing sample plots and using more remote sensing data. This study focuses on this change from the perspective of an employee of a forest planning or advisory organization. The theoretical frame is action theory. The aim is to find out how this new forest data suits forest planning and is the quality of the data good enough to make forest plans. This research is a very topical subject because forest data that is based on laser scanning is going to bring significant changes to the forest planning field practices. The strengths of laser scanning are that it is objective and it gives at least as accurate tree data measures as other methods. Forest data based on laser scanning is also quite inexpensive, it can be acquired very quickly and it is easy to update. There is very little previous research about this subject. It is likely that new researched information is going to improve the usability of forest data that is based on laser scanning at forest planners’ everyday work. This research was implemented with web-based questionnaire and both quantitative and qualitative methods where used. The sample was taken from three forest organizations (The Finnish Forest Centre, OTSO Forest Services and The Forest Management Associations). The aim was to select forest professionals that use laser scanning based forest information at their work. The whole sample size was 929 respondents and the response rate was 37 percent. The research methods used were statistical description, cross tables and qualitative thematic analysis. When we look at the results it is clear that there are differences on how regularly forest data based on laser scanning is used in these three organizations. The Finnish Forest Centre and OTSO Forest services are using forest data based on laser scanning more often than The Forest Management Associations, but in all of these organizations there was a desire to use it more. The results of this study clearly show that a main part of forest professionals think that this new method is suitable for forest planning at least as an aid to making forest plans. The forest professionals also thought that there is still room for improvement in this new forest data collection method. There are too many errors at reliability especially in young and untreated forest. There is also a difficulty to determine the ratio of tree species. Generally it can be said that forest data based on laser scanning is liked among the forest professionals and they would like to use it more in the future.

Urban forests of Helsinki city are managed in multiple ways and several forest values are taken into account in forest management. Strong forest management actions that change the forest landscape radically have been done quite seldom, which has increased the proportion of old forests. The risk of spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) outbreaks is often evident especially in older Norway spruce (Picea abies) forests of low vitality. In the winter of 2011 to 2012 storms caused windfalls in some areas of the urban forests in Helsinki city, which increased the risk of spruce bark beetle outbreaks even more. The objective of this study was to assessment the risk of spruce bark beetle outbreaks in the urban forest of Helsinki city and present future forest management recommendations to control the spruce bark beetle damage. Monitoring with pheromone baited traps was used as the main investigation method. Results were compared with spruce bark beetle risk estimates found in literature. Other factors affecting the risk of spruce bark beetle, for example the amount of living Norway spruces infested with the spruce bark beetle, were observed as well. Monitoring with pheromone traps was carried out with 36 traps in three regions in Helsinki Central Park and in one region in Herttoniemi between 6th of May and 4th of July in 2013. Pheromone trap model, WitaTrap Multi Funnel, and pheromone bait Ipsowit® Standard were manufactured by Witasek company. Altogether 79 210 spruce bark beetles were trapped. According to the monitoring results the risk of spruce bark beetle can be high in one region in Central Park area. Living Norway spruces infested by the spruce bark beetle were found in two regions and also in one area outside the investigation area. Based on the results the areas with greatest risk to spruce bark beetle damage were the neighboring areas of previous damage as well as forests with suitable breeding material for the spruce bark beetle. The risk can also be high in Norway spruce forests of low vitality and in recently formed, sun-exposed forest edges dominated by Norway spruce. Forest management recommendations in short time interval to control the spruce bark beetle risk are as follows 1) forest monitoring and removal of spruce bark beetle infested live Norway spruces before Midsummer, 2) observation of storm damage and removal of large diameter Norway spruce windfalls as a rule, 3) monitoring the weather conditions and 4) following national announcements related to the spruce bark beetle risk status. Forest management recommendations for longer time interval are phased regeneration fellings of risk prone Norway spruce forests and changing the forest structures more resistant to spruce bark beetle damage in the future.

Biological sprout control with Chondrostereum purpureum (Pers. ex Fr.) Pouzar was integrated to mechanized early cleaning. In this method, liquid with hyphae of C. purpureum was sprayed on the freshly cut stumps. C. Purpureum has been studied for biological sprout controlling since 1980’s. This species is a common basidiomycete saprophytic fungus found in Finland, and thus does not cause a biological risk. Early cleaning and pre-commercial cleaning of young forests have not experienced major innovations since the brush saw. Mechanizing of work has been thought to be a solution for increasing working costs. Chemical sprout control has been restricted to special targets, which addresses more interest on alternative biological methods. In this research, effectivity of biological stump treatment and factors affecting the results were investigated. Early cleaning was done in eight study sites during June–September 2014. Inside the sites, area was partly treated with mechanical cutting and by applying C. purpureum stump on freshly cut stumps, and partly with mechanical cutting only (a control treatment). 15 circular sample plots with a radius of one meter per treatment were founded in studied young forest stands (altogether 480). All stumps and saplings with a diameter over 5 mm were studied in 9-10/2015. The data includes altogether 2030 hardwood stumps. Stump mortality, number of living sprouts and the height of the sprouts were modelled for birch, rowan, aspen and willow. Results revealed that sprout control with C. Purpureum affected mortality, sprout number and height of birch sprouts. Mortality increased with time lag after treatment and with increasing stump diameter. The results showed that mortality level of 50 % was reached after two growing seasons. Sprout number increased with increasing stump basal area and decreased with time lag after treatment. Number of other saplings on the plot and soil moisture effected negatively on sprout number. Sprout height increased with increasing stump basal area and stump height. Number of other saplings and stumps on the plot affected birch sprout height negatively. Results of C. Purpureum stump treatment were weaker for other studied hardwood species (rowan, aspen, willow) and other factors affected more than biological sprout control. Effectiveness of sprout control in this study was weaker than in other studies presented recently. Time span of this study was considerably short and final results are seen some years after stump treatment. Another factor to consider is the spreading method used in this study. Stump treatment integrated to mechanized early cleaning of young conifer plantations need to be developed further so that this method would be profitable in practical silviculture.

Kosteikon perustaminen tai kunnostaminen on ympäristöä muuttava hanke, jolla liki aina on sosiaalisia vaikutuksia alueelle. Muutokset ihmisten lähiympäristössä heijastuvat heidän elinoloihinsa, hyvinvointiin sekä viihtyvyyteen. Ympäristöä muuttavien hankkeiden suunnittelijoiden, toteuttajien ja esimerkiksi lähiympäristön asukkaiden näkemykset hankkeen hyödyistä ja haitoista voivat olla moni-naiset ja osin jopa hyvin erilaiset. Sosiaalisten vaikutusten arviointi on menetelmä tai toimintastrategia, jolla hankkeen vaikutuksia ihmisten elinoloihin, hyvinvointiin sekä viihtyvyyteen voidaan arvioida. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli pyrkiä tunnistamaan kosteikon perustamisen vaikutuksia toteuttajiin ja lähiympäristöön sekä lähiympäristön asukkaisiin. Tarkastelun kohteina ovat: 1) toteuttajien sekä lähialueen asukkaiden väliset suhteet, 2) intressit kosteikon rakentamiseen, 3) kosteikkojen perustamisen haasteet, 4) toteuttajien kokemukset ja odotukset kosteikon odotetuista ja havaituista vaikutuksista sekä 5) halukkuus perustaa kosteikoita ilman ulkopuolista rahoitusta. Tutkimusaineiston muodostivat kaksi Kotiseutu-kosteikko Life+ -hankkeen mallikohteiden toteuttajille suunnattua lomakekyselyä. Ensimmäinen kysely suoritettiin ennen kosteikkojen toteuttamista ja toinen toteuttamisen jälkeen. Tulkintaa tukemaan suoritettiin kosteikoilla kaivutöiden yhteydessä toteuttajien ja lähialueen ihmisten teemahaastatteluja ja lisäksi puhelinhaastatteluja. Idea kosteikon rakentamiseen kykeni lähtemään monesta erilaisesta suunnasta. Ratkaisevan aloitteen idean muodostumisesta itse toteuttamisen konkreettiseen valmisteluun olivat Life+ -kosteikkojen kohdalla ottaneet liki puolessa tapauksista maanomistajat. Heidän rinnallaan aktiivisina aloitteentekijöinä olivat metsästysseura tai -seurue, mutta yksittäisissä tapauksissa myös moni muu taho. Yleisimmin yhteistyöhön päätyivät aktiiviset metsästävät, kalastavat ja koiraharrastuksissa mukana olevat henkilöt, jotka jakoivat kiinnostuksen luonnon tarkkailuun ja hoitoon. Toteuttajat näkivät kosteikon vaikutukset lähiympäristöön ja sen ihmisiin positiivisina eikä negatiivisia arvioita ilmennyt. Heidän odotuksensa vaikutuksista olivat korkealla ja ne myös toteutuivat. Toteuttajat pitivät keskinäisiä suhteitansa kautta linjan hyvinä tai erittäin hyvinä. Yksimielisimmin toteuttajat näkivät kosteikon arvon luonnonhavainnoinnin mahdollistajana ja sekä vesilintujen määrän lisääjänä. He myös arvioivat, ettei kosteikon toteuttaminen synnyttänyt kateutta muissa alueen ihmisissä. Odottamattomia haasteita toteuttamisen aikana aiheuttivat useimmiten luonnonolosuhteet, ja selviytymisessä auttoi usein osaava kaivinkonekuski. Haasteina koettiin myös lupaviranomaisten hidas toiminta ja Life+ -hankkeen resurssien puute ja kosteikkosuunnittelijoiden lomat. Näistä selvittiin monissa tapauksissa odottamalla vain kärsivällisesti. Kynnyskysymyksenä kosteikkojen rakentamiselle pidettiin ulkoista rahoitusta. Toteuttajat pitivät Life+ -rahoitusta hyvin merkityksellisenä toteuttamiselle. Vaihtoehtona tälle he pitivät lähinnä maatalouden ei-tuotannollista tukea tai Leader-rahoitusta. Muita rahoituslähteitä ei joko oikein edes tunnettu tai nähty merkittävänä. Toteuttamista eteenpäin vieväksi ja toteuttamisen kannalta tärkeäksi vastaajat kuitenkin kokivat Life+ -hankkeen rahoituksen rinnalla sen tarjoaman suunnittelu- ja toteutusavun. Tulosten mukaan kosteikkojen rakentamiselle ei voida määritellä lähtökohtien ja toteuttajatahojen osalta yhtenäistä samaa muottia, jonka mukaan kaikki hankkeet etenisivät. Toteuttajien kokemukset ja odotukset kosteikkohankkeen eri vaiheissa olivat kautta linjan positiivisia ja nämä odotukset voidaan katsoa kytkeytyvän osittain motiiveiksi kosteikkojen perustamisen taustalle. Tulosten perusteella ei näytä olevan esteitä, miksi kosteikkojen rakentaminen ei jatkuisi tulevaisuudessakin. Hyvien tulosten taustalla täytyy muistaa kuitenkin Kotiseutukosteikko Life+ -hankkeen toimiva konsepti, joka mahdollisti sujuvan kosteikkojen toteuttamisen. Lisäksi mallikohteiksi oli valittu sellaisia kohteita, joiden lähtökohdat olivat hyvät. Toteuttajatahojen väliset suhteet sekä maastolliset piirteet olivat myös kunnossa.

Norway spruce (Picea abies) is nowadays generally planted on mounted sites in Finland. When compared to other cultivation methods, it has been noticed that mounding has significantly improved seedlings development and growth. However, inverting is still one of the mounding methods, which has been little examined nor height development models created in Finland. In this study the aim was to generate height development models for Norway spruce in 5-17-years old inverted sites. Two models were created both stand and tree levels. The effect of the model’s predictor variables to the height development was analyzed. Height model at stand level was also compared with the other Norway spruce height models in Finland. The study material consisted of 49 inverted Norway spruce plantations in southern Finland. Total number of sample plots were 853. With the sample plot data, available GIS-data (National Land Survey of Finland and Meteorological Institute) was also used to improve height models accuracy. GIS-data was utilized specially in the tree level model. Whole data was analyzed in SPSS-software where height models were fitted by using Generalized linear models -procedure. Both of the final height models included only significant height predictors. In the both models seedlings age, site type (Cajander 1949) and growing season’s precipitation sum were correlated positively with Norway spruce height. Broad-leaved trees height competition was also noticed to reduce height development in the both models. At the stand level model (RMSE 17 %) seedlings height development was also increased in coarse-grained soils. At the tree level model (RMSE 32,2 %) digital elevation model (DEM) derived topographic variables were correlated well with Norway spruce height. Hillside aspect decreased height development in Southwest, West and Northwest sides of the hill, where afternoon sun typically occur. Seedlings height was also poorer on topographic lowlands like lower slopes and depressions. In the tree level, height development was also decreased according to amount of competitive trees, frost damages, paludification and elevation. The inverting done a year preceding planting increased height development in the tree level model, when compared to the inverting done at the same year with planting. Model comparison at stand level demonstrate that seedlings height development was significantly better on inverted sites than on harrowed or scalpered sites. Interesting found was also that height development on inverted sites was almost identical to the mounted sites height development in the Motti-stand level simulator (Natural Resources Institute Finland). Stand level comparison indicated that Norway spruce growth and development is promising in the inverted sites and it stands comparison to the other mounding methods also. This study also proved that it is possible to utilize GIS-data (National Land Survey of Finland and Meteorological Institute) in trees height modeling.