Winter has arrived and if you like I live in a northern or snowy country it is difficult for animals, especially deer, to find food under the snow.

You who do not hunt should also be extra vigilant when driving, wild animals move like to move along the roadside where it is easy to walk.

- We hunters spend both time and money on wildlife conservation during the winter, “says Daniel Ligné, animalcare-consultant at the Swedish Hunters Association. It is a natural part of the hunt, but during severe winters, extra work is required. Hunters pay millions of euro out of their own pocket for various wildlife conservation measures every year, adds Daniel Ligné.

Here are the Hunters’ Union advice to landowners and hunters to help the deer:

7 good advice from to help the deer during cold winters:

1. Start the feeding early!

2. Choose the right place for feeding, preferably where the deer already are. It should also preferably be open to the south with good visibility.

3, Feed in several places so that even the weaker animals may be able to eat.

4. The deer like crushed oats, pellets, silage, grain, potatoes, fruit and vegetables. You can even buy specific food-mixes for deer in some markets.

5. Put out salt blocks and cut down aspens (Populus tremula).

6. Do not put out food close to busy roads or buildings.

7. Continue feeding until the deer have access to natural food. This might last all the way into April depending on where you live.

Barkbread has evolved from the dismal years of crop failure to trendy snackas in luxury restaurants. Plenty of fibers and antioxidants from the pine trees in northern Finland.

Incredibly good! The spontaneous comments came thick and fast when the visitors at Stockholm International Fairs (Stockholmsmässan) chewed the bark of the crispy bread. Now, what used to be famine food has become pure luxury food and forest products are coming into focus more and more. There is much more than timber and pulpwood to sink your teeth in.

“Härjedalbröd” in Lillhärdal, Sweden, has become very successful with the barkbread that besides bark contains rye, wheat, pilsner malt extract, crushed juniper berries, salt and water.

– We mix in about six percent bark flour which comes from pine (Pinus sylvestris) whitebark in Rovaniemi, Finland. Unfortunately, we are forced to import because there is nobody who can bring out the quality of barkflour that is needed in the bakery. We sell over 8000 packages barkbread every year, said Soren Lindwall, one of three owners of Härjedsbröd, who has been making barkbread since since 1993.
It is not the outer pine bark which is used but the thin layer called the phloem, which is between the wood and the outer bark. The taste is very bitter and should, in other words be mixed up with plain flour. Reportedly, the barkflour is very vitamin C-rich and can be purchased at health food stores.

Barkbread is associated with famine and misery, but can be viewed as a piquant spice and a variation of breadbaking. There are many recipes, but you don’t need to be very exact or careful. Those with sensitive stomachs should perhaps use a small admixture of bark flour.

Forestnews invites you to wooded proper baking:

100 grams of yeast
1 liter of lukewarm water
1 liter of rye flour
1.5 liters of wheat flour
just over 2 dl bark flour

Mix the dough and let rise one hour. Roll out and bake – time and temperature depends on the size of the bread you make.

The sound is deafening when the blade cuts through the Armenian Beech-wood (Fagus sylvatica). The freshly sawn slats get piled by the first sawyer who seems completely unaffected by the angry noise.

However, the visitors from the Swedish Forestry Association desperately try to cover their ears while they take pictures and ask questions. At the same time, four men lift up a new log on the saw table at the other end of the room. Thus, almost the entire workforce showed up.

During the Soviet period, the little sawmill in the village Koghb located near the border with Azerbaijan in the north of Armenia, employed about 40 people. Today they manufacture components for local flooring manufacturers, the manager explains, but the export market for Armenian timber is nearly nonexistent. When asked why they have not been using ear protection he smiles. If he were to enforce smoking-bans and earmuffs the three days per month that the men have jobs here, chances are they will not show up once he actually had work for them.

- One of the biggest problems with the Armenian forestry is the extremely weak industry. There is simply no motivation pushing the development forward – and in this case also for the protection of the workers, says tour leader Leif Strömquist.

Forest offices, national parks, planting schools and a forest education center. Leif’s long experience in forestry projects in the country and his contacts within the industry gave the members of the Swedish Forestry Association unique opportunities to learn about Armenia and its people.

Fortunately the situation is slowly improving. Recent community meetings organized by the EU-funded FLEG programme in Armenia have sought to ensure efficient assessment of the local population’s access to forest resources as well as help develop pilot projects on sustainable forest use and improved livelihood.

More about the FLEG programme: http://www.enpi-info.eu/indexeast.php

Swedish Forestry Association: http://www.skogen.se/pub/render?id=1980

With Europes lastest addition in 30 cm resolution, starting from next year the latest and most detailed aereal photographs will be avaible. These will not have to be bought. Instead each each click is payed, which keeps the prices down. Microsoft plans an update frequency of five years. In some European countries group licenses for user groups have already been negotiated but in other countries in and outside Europe there has been shown a great interest in this technology.

Until today, Orthophotos had to be bought from private or public for a lot of money. Now a modern planning tool is available with this technology. With the purchase of the software the Orthophoto-problem is automatically solved.

If one wants to overlay the for example the field of agriculture onto the cadastral map with LPIS-data (Land Parcel Information System), then it’s simple to order and import it to a standard format such as “Shape”.

After INSPIRE Google or Bing-base data is being used – It’s rapid, unbureaucratic and inexpensive. In addition to this, the digital data will be avaible for private companies in the future. Thus there will be global data, which means that what is seen with 30cm resolution in Europe, will be avaible in Africa or other regions with 50cm or 1m resolution – and if these qualities are too low GPS or DGPS can be imported.

For  further reading: http://www.progis.com/

JTE

The Brazilian forestry is mainly characterized by plantations founded by large companies. But in recent years, small and medium-sized land owners have discovered the profitability of forest plantations. They are planting like never before.

When forest companies fire up so-called greenfield projects, they begin with buying land in appropriate areas and lay down the foundation for the forest. After a few years starts the factory planning, financing and procurement.  Ideally, the production should start, while the oldest plantings are ripe for logging; for eucalyptus normally seven years. A factory needs 100 000 hectare production forest for an annual production of one million tons pulp.

But now smaller players step into the field. In the beginning it was the companies who urged them on.  Back then the farmers signed contracts that the timber would be delivered to a particular company against that the company contributed plants and technology. Today an increasing number invest with their own resources and are thus not bound to deliver to any particular buyer.

Rising timber prices and a growth of up to 60 cubic meters per year per hectare means that it is often far more profitable with forestry than, for instance, soya, sugar or meat-cattle. The only thing which makes the farmers hesitate is that he will have to wait up to seven years before it he starts earning any actual money.

Forest-companies welcome the development. Procurement of raw materials is secured without the industry needing to tie up capital. Meanwhile, the forestry, is no longer a clear target for the outside world criticism against the creation of “monocultures” and “green deserts”.

Environmental groups have long criticized the forest companies for over-exploitation of land without creating social development in rural areas. It is not as easy to operate criticism when local farmers account for the plantations.