The Deciduous Forest Project in Ume Älvdal

Several landscape assessments, done by Umeå municipality and the County administrative board of Västerbotten, have shown that the Ume Älvdal landscape has high amount of deciduous trees compared to the surrounding landscape, and the area is considered as an area with high potential for both deciduous dependent species in general and specifically the critically endangered White backed woodpecker. 

Historically this landscape has been more open. In 1950’s much of the land was used for small scale agriculture, creating a mosaic of small areas of grazed or mowed grassland or cropland mixed with more forested patches. Up to 1950’s the Ume river (Umeälven) was also more or less unregulated in this area, allowing the river to create natural disturbance by regular flooding and erosion, creating deciduous dominated forests along the river. In 1950’s a new hydroelectric plant was built in the area, both creating areas of completely novel land and causing the water regime to change, resulting in less natural disturbance along the river and less favouring conditions for deciduous dominated stands. In addition to this, much of the agricultural land in the area has been abandoned and afforested, often with natural regeneration and thus following a natural succession. Also, the novel land created as a consequence of the hydropower plant has been forested, mainly by natural succession. This historical development has led to the landscape we see today, where some deciduous rich stands have high amount of old deciduous trees and dead wood but have experienced a large ingrowth of spruces during the last decades and can now be considered as successionally too “old” to be optimal for most of the deciduous favoured species. Other deciduous dominated stands, on the other hand, can be considered as too “young” since they have not yet developed high amounts of dead wood and trees with old-growth qualities. Therefor the restoration activities aim at both “speeding up” succession by increasing amount of dead wood, diameter growth etc in too “young” stands, while aiming at “slowing down” succession by removing spruces in too “old” stands.

The overarching goal with the Deciduous Forest Project is to create deciduous dominated forests with high light influx and high amount of dead, deciduous wood to create suitable living conditions for species dependent on this kind of forests, with special focus on the White backed woodpecker (Dendrocopus leucotus) as an umbrella species. 

Most of the actions are finansed by NOKÅS-grants (state funding). Parts of the actions are also financed by the Horizon 2020 EU-project SUPERB (GA 101036849) and Rewilding Sweden.

The Deciduous Forest project will increase the area of suitable habitat for White backed woodpeckers with at least 134 ha, and thus contributing to the reach of the national goal of at least 250 individuals. Parts of the restoration area is also popular for different outdoor activities for locals and peopla living in the nearby city of Umeå and the restoration will also contribute in creating open and light forests that are prefered by many people. 

• “Girdeling” bark removal on most spruces and pines in deciduous rich stands. Aim: Create a more open and lighter deciduous dominated stand by slowly and successively killing the coniferous trees. Creates dead conifer wood in the stand.
• Cutting and removal of most spruces and pines in deciduous rich stands. Aim: Create a more open and lighter deciduous dominated stand. Are used in stands with large number of spruces where it might be a risk for bark beetle outbreaks if the fresh wood is left within the stand. Implicates an income for the forest owner.
• “Girdeling” bark removal on deciduous trees. Aim: create dead deciduous wood by slowly killing the trees and hence providing resources for white-backed woodpecker.
• Selective thinning in young, deciduous dominated stands. Aim: To create more variation in stem density, promote species of higher conservation value (e.g. Goat willow and Aspen), increase growth in selected individuals. 

Umeå Municipality: Marlene Olsson (marlene.olsson@umea.se)

The SUPERB-project: The County Administrative Board of Västerbotten (Åsa Granberg, asa.granberg@lansstyrelsen.se)

The Deciduous Forest Project in Ume Älvdal is a restoration project lead by Umeå Municipality. The EU project SUPERB (GA 101036849) as well as Rewilding Sweden are taking part in the project by directly financing parts of the measures and by contributing labour-time in planning, result assessment and supervision of contractors.

The overarching goal with the Deciduous Forest Project is to create deciduous dominated forests with high light influx and high amount of dead, deciduous wood to create suitable living conditions for species dependent on this kind of forests, with special focus on the White backed woodpecker (Dendrocopus leucotus) as an umbrella species. The Deciduous Forest Project is part of an initiative on a larger geographical scale, aiming to create more suitable habitat for the White backed woodpecker along the coast of Västerbotten county and up along the mouthing rivers. This initiative started in 2017 and is a collaboration with several different actors, such as municipalities, forest companies and other landowners, coordinated by the County administrative Board of Västerbotten. Up until today, these actors have restored several deciduous dominated forests in several different places, increasing the area and enhancing the habitat quality of deciduous dominated forests along the coast. So far, the ecological response of the initiative has been successful, with increasing numbers of White backed woodpeckers and successful breeding’s in the area, and in the last two years most of the successful breeding’s in Sweden has been found in Västerbotten county (5 out of totally 8 in 2022, and 7 out of totally 11 in 2023). The Deciduous Forest project will further add to this, increasing the area of suitable habitat for White backed woodpeckers, and thus contributing to the reach of the national goal of at least 250 individuals.