Private Forest Owner Characteristics Affect European Spruce Bark Beetle Management under an Extreme Weather Event and Host Tree Density

Abstract

In the last few decades, an increasing number and intensity of bark beetle outbreaks have plagued the forests of Europe and North America. Bark beetle management is directly related to forest owner characteristics, although this relationship is not well understood. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of forest owner characteristics on the amount and timing of sanitary felling under different disturbance regimes and quantities of Norway spruce. We combined different databases on sanitary felling, the timing of sanitary felling, and forest owner characteristics for Slovenia from 2014 to 2018 and analyzed the amount and timing of sanitary felling in relation to forest owner characteristics. We found that the timing in winter and the amount of sanitary felling were positively associated with the distance of the owner’s residence to the forest parcel. Larger parcels were more affected by bark beetles but did not have later timing of cutting in the summer period as was hypothesized. The timing of sanitary felling decreased with property size, while with the probability of sanitary felling, the effect of property depended on the ice storm and the amount of spruce. The size of the settlement, the permanent address of the private owner, and timing of sanitary felling were positively associated but also depended on the amount of spruce. Gender and age did not have an important influence on the amount and timing of sanitary felling. Forest owners are an important factor in effective bark beetle management. This study highlights the private forest ownership characteristics that should be emphasized in order to fight bark beetle outbreaks in the event of large-scale disturbances. Governments should support forest owners who are at greater risk of bark beetle outbreaks and less efficient in managing outbreaks. Furthermore, landowner characteristics should be included when forecasting bark beetle outbreaks.

Forest subsidy distribution in five European countries

“…This activity was planned for motivating forest owners to manage their forests to a larger extend and to consequently counteract the underuse of forests and the increasing damages, becausedespite highly productive forestsonly 50% of the annual increment was harvested in the years before 2012 (Skudnik et al, 2021). From 2014 to 2018, Slovenia eventually experienced several extreme weather events (including wind and ice storms) followed by bark beetles outbreaks, which required sanitary loggings to process disproportiontely large amounts of damaged timber (De Groot et al, 2021;Ogris, 2020). The already planned funds for new machinery and equipment were then used to enable these loggings.…”

Understanding small‐scale private forest owners is a basis for transformative change towards integrative conservation

“…In consequence, effective conservation strongly depends on management decisions taken by small‐scale private forest owners (Mayer, 2019; Paloniemi & Tikka, 2008). Although private forest ownership has long been investigated (Weiss, Lawrence, Lidestav, et al., 2019), knowledge of how small‐scale private forest owners perceive and react to recent forest challenges is limited (de Groot et al., 2021), as is expertise in how to design appropriate management approaches that account for current environmental changes (Weiss, Lawrence, Hujala, et al., 2019). This is particularly true when looking at transformative change towards integrative conservation.…”

Hierarchical Integration of UAS and Sentinel-2 Imagery for Spruce Bark Beetle Grey-Attack Detection by Vegetation Index Thresholding Approach

“…On the other hand, flying bark beetles can be caught in the summer by placing pheromone traps in the fresh conifers. The dormant period of the bark beetle from October to March is the right time to survey stands and assess their condition [10].…”