Tree Growth and Wood Quality in Pure Vs. Mixed-Species Stands of European Beech and Calabrian Pine in Mediterranean Mountain Forests

Currently, the decline in spruce wood prices is a serious problem for the forestry sector in the Czech Republic. We estimate that the fall in wood prices in European markets causes losses not only to the forestry companies producing, harvesting, and processing the wood, but also to the workers in the sector. These losses are mainly caused by a combination of several natural factors: drought, climate change, and the effects of bark beetles. In particular, spruce bark beetles cause the greatest damage. Due to this bark beetle calamity, unplanned logging has increased. In 2019, these damages have culminated. Almost 100 million m3 of wood has been harvested over the last decade due to the bark beetle and more than half of this volume has been mined in the last four years. Therefore, the losses in the forestry sector are around EUR 1.12 billion. The aim of this study is an analysis of the relationship between the volume of incidental logging and the decline in the price of spruce wood. These results show the strong correlation between the measure of unplanned wood harvesting and the decrease in wood prices, as well as an estimate of price development if the upward trend of incidental mining continues. The average price of wood in the Czech Republic could thus reach a historical minimum of EUR 79.39 per m3 of spruce and category SM/JE II (spruce/fir). In addition, the decline in wood prices will be reflected in the management of forestry and timber businesses, including stagnant wages for forestry workers. The socio-economic impact of the bark beetle calamity is high and is most affected by the decline in spruce timber prices.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impacts of Calamity Logging on the Development of Spruce Wood Prices in Czech Forestry

Toth

Maitah

Malec

et al. 2020

“…€ 5.1 million [81,98]. Thus, research into the determinants of wood quality may improve the economic efficiency of beech stands in particular, and the forest industry in general [6,93,[99][100][101].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dynamics of Beech Roundwood Prices in Selected Central European Markets

Kożuch

Banaś

2020

The European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) is the most prevalent deciduous tree species in Central Europe. The implementation of sustainable, close-to-nature silvicultural practices increased the percentage share of beech in forest species composition, raising the economic significance of beech roundwood, especially in terms of revenues from timber sales. The elucidation of roundwood price mechanisms as well as long-term equilibrium relations between international markets may be helpful in calculating the profitability of beech roundwood production. The study material consists of quarterly time series of beech roundwood prices from Austria, Czechia, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia in the years 2005–2018. The price time series were described with a multiplicative model incorporating seasonal, cyclical, and irregular, as well as long-term trend components. The time series were decomposed using the Census X11 method. Stationarity was tested by means of the augmented Dickey–Fuller test (ADF) and the Kwiatkowski–Phillips–Schmidt–Shin test (KPSS). Cointegration was assessed using the Johansen and Engle–Granger methods. From 2005–2018, the highest mean beech roundwood prices were found for Austria (77.5 € m−3) and Germany, and the lowest for Poland and Slovakia. Roundwood prices were badly affected by the 2008/2009 financial crisis, which caused an approx. 27% decline. The prices of large-diameter beech logs exhibited seasonal fluctuations, typically reaching a maximum in Q1 and a minimum in Q3. The amplitude of those fluctuations was the highest in Slovenia in 2005 (10.1%), while in Czechia and Germany, seasonal effects increased over the period of study. The lowest seasonality was found in Slovakia and Austria (in the latter country it was not statistically significant). On an annual scale, cyclical changes generally accounted for the largest proportion of price variation, and were particularly pronounced in Poland (78.9%), Slovakia (78.6%), and Austria (69.2%). On the other hand, seasonal effects were predominant in the Slovenian (40.6%), German (34.1%), and Czech (33.3%) markets. In countries with price series of type I(0), simple correlation between stationary beech roundwood prices is positive and the strongest between Czechia–Poland and Czechia–Austria; on the other hand they are the weakest in the German market. In Slovakia and Slovenia with nonstationary price series, both Johansen’s and Engle-Granger’s cointegration tests indicated the absence of a long-term equilibrium between the analyzed beech timber markets. Results revealed integration between the prices of large-diameter beech logs in Czechia, Austria, and Poland. It should be mentioned that in this study, the time series of price used are rather short for long time cointegration analysis, which might prevent the proper detection of cointegration between all analyzed countries.

“…These values were averaged to get a single grain angle value per stem. Stem AV in the longitudinal direction was measured using the Fakopp TreeSonic Timer (FAKOPP Enterprise, Agfalva, Hungary) and converted from ToF (µs m −1 ) to AV (m s −1 ) [66]. The TreeSonic timer was applied to the southern stem face between 0.8 and 1.8 m, so that the 1 m length was centered on breast height.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Parameters of Stem and Wood Traits in Full-Sib Silver Birch Families

Jones

Liziniewicz

Αδαμόπουλος

et al. 2021

This study investigated heritability of stem and wood traits to improve Swedish silver birch (Betula pendula Roth.) through breeding. Birch is 12% of Sweden’s forest area but mainly used for low value pulp or firewood. This paper applied non-destructive test (NDT) methods, and estimated traits’ heritability (h2), to help breed birch for high value solid wood products. Two trials of 22 families were assessed at age 19 for stem diameter (DBH), stem straightness, rough brown bark height (BH), grain angle (GA), Pilodyn penetration depth (Pilo) and acoustic velocity (AV). X-ray densitometry was performed on a subsample of radial cores taken at 1.3 m from the ground to get an average benchmark density. The h2 values were moderate for GA (0.20 and 0.21) and Pilo (0.53 and 0.48) at the two sites, but the h2 values for AV were low (0.05 and 0.30). There were moderate genotypic correlations between BH and DBH (0.51–0.54). There were low genotypic and phenotypic correlations between NDT measurements and other traits so including NDT in birch breeding efforts should not inadvertently reduce size, stem or wood quality. The high genetic correlations between sites suggest that GA, Pilo and AV values were determined more by genotype than by environment.