For several years, Holmen has nurtured a mosaic landscape of deciduous forest and meadows on its own land in Länna in Uppland. Here, beautiful deciduous trees thrive, especially oaks, which over centuries have been allowed to grow strong in the pastures with grazing cattle for company.
A way to collect and spread knowledge
For Holmen, the Knowledge Forests are an important way to collect and spread knowledge about the forest and the history of forestry. Länna is Holmen's fourth Knowledge Forest and from May 17 visitors are welcome to enjoy the upgraded hiking trail, which in addition to wonderful nature experiences offers several new barbecue areas and improved signage.
"We now hope that more people will discover this beautiful place", says Henrik Björkman, forest and land manager at Holmen Forest.
Through the conservation measures that have been taken in the area, a good environment has been created for several considerate insects, for example the cinnabar beetle.
"In order to benefit the noble leaves, in recent years we have cleared oaks and together with Upplandsstiftelsen created pastures instead of replanting spruce. We have also restored a beautiful wetland together with both Upplandsstiftelsen and WWF", says Mikael Äng, nature conservation officer at Holmen Forest.
Testing new forestry methods
In Länna, Holmen is also testing new forestry methods. Experiments with checkerboard cutting are currently being carried out in a pine forest. Through so-called gap cutting, gaps smaller than 50x50 meters are created in a checkerboard pattern. On the regeneration areas, we test different types of forest management methods.
"Thanks to the proximity to the Swedish University of Agriculture (SLU) and Uppsala University, we hope for more research projects in the area. We strive towards sustainable development and are keen to learn more in order to constantly improve our work", says Sören Petersson, Business Area Manager at Holmen Skog.
More information (in Swedish):
Read more about the inauguration
About Länna Knowledge Forest