Precision forestry for improved resource utilization and reduced wood decay in Norwegian forests (PRECISION)

Every year, the fungi causing root and butt rot inflicts heavy economic losses for the forest industry. In this project we will use digital data from harvesters, satellites, aircrafts and drones to develop methods that limit the spread of infection.

prosjekt

About/Aims

Background

Root rot is the single largest cause of economic loss in Norwegian forests, and the loss, or the value reduction for spruce, is estimated at more than NOK 100 million per year. The PRECISION project aims to reduce this. PRECISION is a collaborative project between the following organizations:

Allskog, Norway
AT skog, Norway
Fondazione Edmund Mach, Italy
Glommen Mjøsen Skog, Norway
Gundersen & Løken AS, Norway
NIBIO - Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (coordinator)
NMBU - Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway
Norskog, Norway
Norwegian Forest Owners’ Federation (Norges Skogeierforbund), Norway
Terratec, Norway
Skogkurs, Norway
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
Viken skog, Norway
Umeå University, Sweden
University of Eastern Finland, Finland
University of Freiburg, Germany

Objectives

The primary objective of PRECISION is to reduce the losses to root and butt rot (RBR) in the Norwegian forest sector through a precision forestry regime.

More about the project

Precision forestry has been defined as planning and conducting of site-specific forest management activities and operations to improve wood product quality and utilization, reduce waste, and increase profits. Precision forestry uses technology and analytical tools to support site-specific decision making. Across all sectors, technology and increased information flows are rapidly changing decision making. In forestry, site-specific data is increasing rapidly but is generally not systemized, analyzed, and applied for improving management. Forest harvesters provide one source of data that can be developed to generate information on RBR for stands and single trees.

PRECISION will focus on developing a system that, during logging, maps the location of infected stumps and allows for operational collection of RBR data.

Secondly, we will analyze the collected RBR data to improve modeling of Heterobasidion spread and decay dynamics and to predict the RBR infection severity in existing stands using remote sensing techniques.

Third, the maps of infected stumps and the ability to model RBR spread dynamics will be utilized to design site-specific regeneration strategies focused on regeneration of resistant trees around infected stumps. In parallel, the predicted infestation severity will be used to make a framework for deciding on site-specific optimal rotation time given risk of RBR losses.

Finally, the value chain gains of a potential reduction in RBR losses will be assessed.

News/Findings

Reviews

Researchers

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Project administrator:

Bjørn Håvard Evjen (NIBIO)

bjorn.havard.evjen@nibio.no

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Project coordinator:

Rasmus Astrup (NIBIO)

rasmus.astrup@nibio.no