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In recent years, the demand for forest food and medicine products has increased, as it is a source of vitamins, minerals and biologically active substances. In addition, they are more environmentally favorable food products and are not processed with chemicals during the growth period. High nutritional value or useful medicinal properties are reduced to zero when the level of toxic substances in them exceeds the maximum permissible norms. Research on the ecological purity of wild plants is an urgent issue. The object of the study is wild-growing berries growing in the Vologda Region. The study used generally accepted methods in assessing the food safety of food products. As a result, it was established that the Vologda Region has a significant resource potential of wild berries. Procurement can be carried out on an area of 110510 thousand km2, and the estimated annual amount of resource withdrawal may be 40591.1 tons. The quality of berry raw material exceeds established standards. When assessing environmental cleanliness, it was found that wild forest berries of the Vologda Region contain less cesium-137 and nitrates than the maximum permissible levels of hazardous concentrations. This fact indicates the possibility of using berries in food production, including baby food.

Selection of high-yielding samples of Siberian stone pine in artificial plantations created outside its habitat potentially improves the quality of work on its introduction. The study represents an assessment of the level of individual variability of Siberian stone pine by seed yield in the context of introduction (taking into account its variation by years of crop generation). Studies were conducted in the annually seeding Chagrinsky cedar grove located in the Gryazovetsky District of the Vologda Region. Sample trees were selected to observe the dynamics of seed formation in the plantation. Observations allowed us to conclude about the irregularity of yields from year to year and high variability in the volume of yields among individual trees. A significantly pronounced effect on the seed yield of Siberian stone pine is recorded both in terms of the year of cone generation and individual variability of the trees. Individual characteristics account for 41% of the total variation in yield, while the year of observation accounts for only 21%. Dependence on individual variability slightly decreases with the increasing duration of observations, which may be due to chronographic variability in the reproductive capacity of the trees. It was concluded that the selection of maternal producers for the creation of high-yielding plantations is advisable. At the same time, the increased observation period for the reproductive capacity of individual trees makes it possible to increase the efficiency of selection. To reduce the duration of observations, it was recommended to use the ratio of crown width to crown length as a correlative feature. Nevertheless, in some non-yielding years, the relationship between the yield and this feature may not be evident. For this purpose, the trees with the lowest value of this indicator should be selected as high-yielding ones.

The withdrawal of lands from active agricultural use and their overgrowth with woody vegetation have a steady trend in Russia, especially in the boreal zone. Studying the plantations developed on fallow lands of agricultural territories enables estimation of their resource potential for further use. The aboveground phytomass of vegetation is the most reliable indicator of habitat productivity. It is possible to determine the volume of carbon storage by assessing the phytomass of tree and shrub vegetation, which is relevant in the context of global climate change. The study object was a field out of active agricultural use in the Gatchina district of the Leningrad region. A trial area was laid out on the test site, where a complete enumeration of native hardwoods (birch, aspen, tree and shrub willows) with the determination of the basic inventory indicators was carried out. In order to find out the volume of phytomass, from 6 to 8 model trees of each species were cut down. Allometric equations for calculating the fractional composition of phytomass with a high determination coefficient were derived based on the data obtained on the values of individual fractions of the trunk ground part. The accuracy of the derived equations is reduced due to the high variability of crown characteristics in dense deciduous young growth. The highest phytomass is in the trunk part, and the lowest in the assimilation apparatus for all species of woody vegetation. Calculation of aboveground phytomass on the test site according to the obtained equations showed that the highest value per 1 ha at this successional stage is typical for downy birch. Currently, the participation of woody vegetation growing on post-agrogenic lands in carbon sequestration has no reliable full assessment for the study region. Wood that was grown on lands out of active agricultural use can serve as a biofuel source and be harvested in the form of technological chips.

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