baumzaehlen - Primeval Forests & Their Trees

Patvinsuo National Park , Finland

The park (105 km²) has bogs, former managed forest and slash and burn areas but also primeval forest. The oldest Picea abies (Norway spruce) stands grow on Autiovaara and Säästö-Maksimansaari, and the oldest Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine) stands on Hietavaara. Altogether there are less than 10 tree species. You may have difficulties distinguishing between Betula pendula (silver birch) and B. pubescens (downy birch) but other tree species are very easy to identify.

The natural average fire interval prior to any significant human influence has been 170–240 years ¹ . However, parts of the forest area had extensive slash and burn cultivation for hundreds of years ². Fire sometimes escaped from slash and burn to the surrounding primeval forests: thus, fire interval during the slash and burn period was only 37–59 years ². The forest fires were ground fires of low intensity that killed P. abies and Betula but spared mature P. sylvestris ² due to their thick bark ³ . There have been no fires since the end of the slash and burn era in the closing years of the 19 ^th century, which also saw the introduction of fire prevention². If fire prevention continues, the forest will develop to complete P. abies dominance². The park lies at 145–275 m elevation. Annual precipitation is 563 mm and average annual temperature 2.1°C ².

Off-trail hiking is quite easy, though impeded in places by bogs, boggy forests and low cliffs. There are also trails through some primeval forest areas. Camping is only allowed at designated sites.

References :

1 Pitkänen, A. et al. (2003): Holocene fire history of middle boreal pine forest sites in eastern Finland . Annales Botanici Fennici Vol. 40 , No. 1, pp. 15-33.

2 Lehtonen , H., Huttunen , P. & Zetterberg, P. (1996): Influence of man on forest fire frequency in North Karelia, Finland, as evidenced by fire scars on Scots pines. Annales Botanici Fennici Vol. 33 , No. 4, pp. 257-263.

3 Agee, J. K. (1998): Fire and pine ecosystems. In Richardson, D. M. (ed.): Ecology and Biogeography of Pinus. Cambridge.

Official site :

http://www.nationalparks.fi/patvinsuonp

Video clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_koRyCmTn0