Forest Club model projects and sites

1. The high-grading period, involved the harvesting of only the best individual trees from a product-yield point of view. In Northern European Russia this phase lasted from the beginning of industrial forest exploitation through the end of the 1920's and was characterized by an absolute dominance of high-grading and individual cutting of the best trees. A rapid increase in management intensity took place during the period from the 1880's to 1913. A rather sharp decline then followed due to the First World War, the Socialist Revolution, and the subsequent Civil War (export fell drastically during this period while internal markets mostly demanded low-quality fuel-wood that was supplied from forests in regions with high populations and comparatively good transportation infrastructure). The highest logging intensity was reached in 1912-1913. The volumes then removed from the European Russian taiga was at the same level as today - more than 40 million cubic meters of wood per year. The average logging intensity in government-owned forests in European Russia (the overwhelming majority of which were located in the taiga zone) was about 0.5 cubic meters per hectare, per year (Godzishevskiy, 1924) - roughly one third of the total potential increment in the entire North. Large areas in the Pechora valley remained more or less untouched during this time, while the forests in the vicinity of the Baltic and White seas were intensively logged at a level much higher than the regional average. The harvest was concentrated on pine forests, as pine wood and products enjoyed the highest demand in export markets. Already during the beginning of the 20th century a significant deficit of accessible large-diameter high-quality pine forests was felt in the basins of the Baltic and White seas. Harvesting operations were forced to move up to the very sources of rivers suitable for log driving as well as onto the major water divides - the least accessible areas for transportation. Continuously decreasing tree diameters in selective cutting at the timber frontier forced loggers to return for a second and even third time to areas they had already passed through. As the supply of large trees diminished, the forest industry's demand for the largest logs also went down.

Fig. 23. Traditionally large houses in northern European Russia demanded considerable amounts of wood for construction and heating. Photo: M. Shlychkov.

Harvesting by local populations of firewood and building timbers made an additional contribution to the intensity of forest utilization during this period. These harvesting volumes were seldom accounted for in official forest statistics because they were usually removed from agrarian forests in the vicinity of villages - areas not under the control of the forest authorities. This contribution appears to have been rather significant, given the cold climate of Northern Russia and the traditionally large sizes of dwellings and other buildings. In 1923-24, the annual consumption of firewood in the Vologda Region was approximately 9.7 cubic meters per person in rural areas (Bykov, 1925). This translates to some 42 million cubic meters in total for the Vologda region (current size of the Vologda Region is several times less than in 1923). Based on these numbers, the total consumption of firewood in northern Russian territories can be estimated at 100 million cubic meters or more of wood per year, 2.5 times the annual harvest of industrial wood. Althought this number seems to be exaggerated, it is evident that the contribution of the local population to the intensity of forest use was significant, and in combination with commercial cutting, over-harvesting was taking place in large areas of Russia's European North.

For this project, all logging that took place during the high-grading period is regarded as background disturbance, having occurred virtually everywhere and being a historical factor in shaping the taiga landscape.

Fig. 24. The depletion of easily accessible forests in inhabited regions forced logging up onto the big water divides, far away from rivers suitable for driving logs. Stump of a large Siberian Stone Pine 10 km from river. Perm Region. Photo: P. Potapov.

Characteristic of this high-grading period is the absolute dominance of river floating for secondary transportation of wood. Even the very smallest of rivers were often used - routes where logs could pass only if carried by spring floodwaters. Primary transportation was completed by horse. A distance from the logging site to the river landing of up to 15 km was considered acceptable, while a distance less than 8 km was thought convenient. In other words, almost the entire basin of the White Sea, Baltic Sea and Volga River was accessible for logging and extraction of high-grade logs. Traces of low intensity selective logging from this period were visible almost throughout the entire area of these basins, including on the sites furthest removed from transportation infrastructure and points of wood consumption.

State forests of Northern European Russia were managed exclusively according to the concept of "even use" annual allowed cut. The usage was determined for each forest district by dividing its area by the number of years in a forest rotation (for uneven-aged management the period between interventions, for even-aged management the stand age at final felling). Over-cutting of the annual area was formally not tolerated. Nevertheless, partly due to poor data and partly because of the continuous reduction in rotation time (associated, among other things, with a decrease in minimum diameter for saleable wood) the "even use" cut remained a rather blunt regulation instrument, without correspondence with the real productivity of the forest.

An overall low degree of extraction due to high-grading in combination with the use of horses for in-woods transportation down to river landings, account for the fact that this logging had a comparatively minor influence on the structure of the forest ecosystem.

The main factor of human disturbance during this period was not so much the logging itself as the fires that were caused by careless loggers. In fact, in many of the remotest areas from current settlements and transportation routes, the majority of forest fires (by area) can be dated to the end of the 19th and beginning the 20th centuries while traces of more recent fires either are totally absent or are estimated in much smaller numbers.