In several places where the Tyresta Forest Foundation (Stiftelsen Tyrestaskogen) has carried out management measures in the Tyresta Nature Reserve, they have clear-cut forests, thinned out old pine and spruce forests and removed dead wood without inventorying the forests first. Changes have now been made to the management plan, which means that the Foundation can enter anywhere in the reserve and “clear cut” around old pines in younger forest. A management measure that members of Protect the Forest and the “Save Tyresta Group” question.
The Tyresta Forest Foundation justifies clear-cutting of pine trees, among other things, by saying that it benefits species that live on pine trees, according to an article. An example of such a species is the red-listed beetle Nothorhina muricata, which needs sunlit pines. But there are already many sunlit pines up on the rocky parts where such species thrive. When the Foundation clears pines, they take down other old pines and spruce, trees that are valuable for biodiversity.
“Spruce will take over”
The foundation’s maintenance manager says in the same article that they thin out the pine because otherwise the spruce will take over. But in natural forests that are mixed forests and spruce forests, it is natural that the spruce grows together with other trees, and it is in these forests that the Foundation carries out its measures. The Foundation has not taken much account of forest-dwelling species such as red-listed wood mushrooms, protected mosses or birds that are part of the Species Protection Ordinance. These species need natural forests that are left to develop freely.
Examples of maintenance measures that members of Skydda Skogen and Rädda Tyrestagruppen question:
Västertäppan: In the autumn of 2021, the Tyresta Forest Foundation carried out a very extensive management measure where they thinned out spruces from old arable land. When you look at the management plan, you can perceive it as referring to the part that was still open land on a map from the 1950s – but a possible misinterpretation resulted in the Foundation felling a significantly larger area. At an adjacent property boundary, there is a key forest biotope (forest with high nature values), but it is not included on the map of the reserve. Furthermore, The Tyresta Forest Foundation did not take into account the habitat at the foot of the hill and clear-cut trees there too. The red-listed wood fungi Phellinidium ferrugineofuscum and Porodaedalea chrysoloma and the moss Buxbaumia viridis are found at the edge of the felling. A spruce stump shows that it was 120 years old. Old fallen dead trees were run over by machines a short distance away, although they were part of many species habitat.
The Coastal Trail: During the autumn of 2022, the Tyresta Forest Foundation clear-cut 180-year-old pines and 120-year-old spruce along the Coastal Trail, just northwest of Vissvass village in the eastern part of the Tyresta Nature Reserve. The felling took place in an older coniferous forest where a lot of pine grows. The red-listed wood fungus Porodaedalea pini which is near threatened (NT) and which only thrives on pine trees older than 100 years, grows right next to the logged area. Non-profit surveyors also encountered the protected moss Buxbaumia viridis at the edge of the logged area. The willow tit (Poecile montanus), a red-listed bird which also should be protected by the Birds Directive, has its habitat in the area. The Tyresta Forest Foundation has transformed the forest into a park-like pine forest where all the trees are the same size. They have also cut away the undergrowth and they have left very little dead wood.
Källvretarna: The foundation has felled a spruce forest to recreate a former field. Extensive work has been carried out with stump cutting and ditching but at the same time not clearing existing meadows and pastures but allowing them to be overgrown. During the spring, before the Foundation had time to do more measures in the rest of the maintenance area, non-profit surveyors from Protect the Forest observed several red-listed species such as the fungi Urnula craterium (EN), Phellopilus nigrolimitatus (NT), Porodaedalea pini (NT), Phellinidium ferrugineofuscum (NT) and the protected moss Buxbaumia viridis. The fungi Urnula craterium is very rare and the red listing EN means that it is endangered. The red listing NT means that the species is near threatened. The Tyresta Forest Foundation was informed of the species and that the planned measures would destroy the environment for the species.
On the Höjden-Källvretarna trail here, non-profit surveyors have noticed that the Foundation has removed fallen dead spruce trees in two places where there are red-listed wood fungi Phellopilus nigrolimitatus and Phellinidium ferrugineofuscum. In order for these threatened wood fungi to be able to spread, it is important that there is dead wood, e.g. several fallen dead spruce trees in the surroundings.
Clear-cutting at Vissvass road without knowledge of capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus): According to non-profit surveyors, it was wrong of the Tyresta Forest Foundation to clear-cut a forest at the Vissvass road. The whole coniferous forest here has become even more fragmentated, which is bad for the nature reserve’s species. For example, it may have affected the possibility for capercaillie to safely forage at marshes and ditches that are next to the road. The forest area was cleared before it was clear-cut and now provides less protection for the capercaillies, whose tracks have been observed nearby.
Hästhagen: In the management area Hästhagen there is both old forest and a former field which is overgrown. At the edge of the old field grows a spruce with the red-listed wood fungi Porodaedalea chrysoloma (NT). The old field borders to Tyresta National Park, where the most abundant occurrence of the lichen Alectoria sarmentosa (NT) in the national park can be found approx. 60 m from the field, as well as the red-listed wood fungi Phellopilus nigrolimitatus (NT) and Porodaedalea chrysoloma (NT) next to the border. These species depend on high and even humidity and are sensitive to rapid changes in light and wind conditions. Despite the fact that the nature reserve is a protection zone for the national park, the County Administrative Board decided that the Foundation is allowed to clear-cut the old field.
Lycksjöhagen: The unusual and red-listed wood fungi Skeletocutis odora (VU) can be found at the border of the Lycksjöhagen scout area. After a storm a few years ago, the Foundation removed several old spruce which had fallen in a storm and also standing spruce. During the same occasion they took the opportunity to remove an old fallen spruce log outside the scout area in the nature-reserve, the log was a small distance from the wood fungi Skeletocutis odora (VU). A species that needs old, coarse spruce logs to spread, then it is wrong to remove one where it is found. The Foundation did not inventory the area before carrying out these measures. There are also the wood-fungi Phellopilus nigrolimitatus (NT), Porodaedalea pini (NT) and Phellinidium ferrugineofuscum (NT) in the scout area, which borders both the Nature Reserve and the National Park.
Tyresta village: Phlebia centrifuga which is a rare wood fungus, red-listed as vulnerable (VU) can be found in two places south of Tyresta village. In 2020, The Tyresta Forest Foundation thinned out the edges of the forest which turned out more like clear-cuts, next to the fields north of the Phlebia centrifuga. The Phlebia centrifuga is about 100 m from the edge of the field and is perhaps not directly threatened, but in a part of old forest that possibly extended to the field (now heavily thinned out). The Foundation has removed a big fallen spruce about 60 m from the edge of the field, about 50 m east of the Phlebia centrifuga. Dead trees lying on the ground are important for many species so that they can spread. The forest to the east of it up to a bridleway is about 100 years old and the Foundation has removed a number of windfalls in this forest, during spring 2022. Windfalls are important for biodiversity and many threatened insects, wood fungi, birds and mosses need them. As usual, The Tyresta Forest Foundation has not investigated which protected species live in the area before carrying out their management measures.
Red-listed and protected species found in Tyresta Nature Reserve
The wood fungi Phellinidium ferrugineofuscum (NT)and Porodaedalea chrysoloma (NT) are boreal red-listed coniferous forest species that grow in several places in the Tyresta nature reserve in or near management areas. They live on dead or dying wood and both are “dependent on high and even humidity in old, undisturbed forest environments”, according to Artfakta. These mushrooms are also sensitive to rapid changes in light and wind conditions. “Mainly occurs in forests that have not been affected by severe disturbance, e.g. final felling, land preparation, driving damage, fertilizing or trenching.” The biggest threat is “felling and fragmentation of natural forest and older spruce forest with long tree continuity”, according to SLU Swedish Species Information Centre (Artfakta).
The moss Buxbaumia viridis is protected by the Species Protection Ordinance §§ 8 and 15. Non-profit surveyors have found this moss in the Tyresta Nature Reserve in areas where the Foundation is to carry out management and where they have already thinned or clear-cut forests adjacent to where Buxbaumia viridis has been found, for example at Västertäppan and at Kustleden. “Deforestation and the lack of dead wood in the forest are the most serious threats to the species”, according to Swedish Species Information Centre (Artfakta). If you cut down the trees around where Buxbaumia viridis grows, it can die because its habitat becomes windier and less humid. It has happened in several places in the Tyresta nature reserve.
Urnula craterium (EN): In the spring, a non-profit surveyor found the unusual fungus Urnula craterium (EN), which is red-listed as highly threatened, in an area with planned maintenance measures that involve the felling of young spruce. A requirement for the species to survive is that the environment in which it lives is not changed and that the dead hazel wood on which it grows is moist all the time. “Many plant sites are old and the fungus seems to be loyal to its premises for a long time and hardly spreads to new areas. Every habitat where the fungi is found is therefore important to preserve”, according to the book “Protected Forest” (Nitare 2019).
Willow tit (Poecile montanus: Exactly where the Foundation has carried out management measures at Vissvassvägen, non-profit surveyors observed willow tit, a red-listed species, protected according to the Species Protection Ordinance §4 and it is also included in the Bird Directive. There are several studies that show that the willow tit is sensitive to thinning out of forest and does not survive when its habitat is clear-cut (Swedish Species Information Centre, Artfakta).
Phellopilus nigrolimitatus is a wood fungus red-listed as near threatened and rare in southern Sweden. Non-profit inventors have found it in the Tyresta nature reserve. Phellopilus nigrolimitatus grows in “pristine or moderately affected old spruce forests, in natural coniferous forests, with long-term continuity of rough dead wood”, according to the book “Protected Forest”, (Nitare 2019). In the Phellopilus nigrolimitatus’ habitat, there are often other unusual and red-listed species. According to the Swedish Species Information Centre, the biggest threat to Phellopilus nigrolimitatus is that there is no longer dead wood in the forest.
Porodaedalea pini is red-listed as a near-threatened wood fungus that only grows on pines that are over 100 years old and is most common on trees that are 150-200 years or older. Porodaedalea pini are found on several of the pines in the Tyresta nature reserve, for example at the Kustleden where the Foundation has cut down old pines right next to other old pines with Porodaedalea pini growing on them. “ Porodaedalea pini is mainly associated with natural pine forests and residual biotopes with biologically old trees. Such areas often constitute a habitat for many unusual and red-listed species, e.g. various insects,” according to Nitare 2019.
Alectoria sarmentosa (NT) is red-listed as near threatened and it is not at all very common this far south in Sweden. About 60 meters from Hästhagen, where management involving felling is planned, there is the most abundant occurrence of Alectoria sarmentosa. The lichen is dependent on high and even humidity in old and undisturbed forest environments, according to the Swedish Species Information Centre (Artfakta). It has difficulty spreading and is therefore sensitive to rational forestry. According to the Swedish Species Information Centre, you should regularly save areas with abundant Alectoria sarmentosa. It is important because several other rare and red-listed species also have their habitat where this lichen is found.
Skeletocutis odora (VU): The unusual and red-listed wood fungus Skeletocutis odora is found at the border of the Lycksjöhagen scout area where the Foundation has carried out measures that involved felling a spruce and also removing a an old fallen tree next to where the Skeletocutis odora is found. It is not so common to encounter Skeletocutis odora in southern Sweden. “It is linked to primeval forest with long-term continuity of dead and fallen coarse spruce logs,” writes Nitare (2019).
Phlebia centrifuga: which is a rare wood fungus, is red-listed as vulnerable (VU). It is an important character-species in primeval spruce forests with long-term continuity of coarse dead wood in various stages of decomposition. It is very sensitive to forestry, writes Nitare (2019). In Tyresta, the Foundation has thinned out a forest with Phlebia centrifuga near Tyresta Village. They did this through a management measure, where they cut down trees at the forest’s edges, without even inventorying the area in beforehand. SLU Swedish Species Information Centre (Artfakta) says: “Current occurrences of Phlebia centrifuga in southern Sweden are within nature reserves. Should the species be found elsewhere in southern Sweden, its habitat must be protected”. But in the Tyresta nature reserve, the Phlebia centrifuga is still not protected.
Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus): Capercaillie live in large parts of the Tyresta Nature Reserve and in the National Park, and there are also courtship grounds. Capercaillie are protected by the Species Protection Ordinance §4 and are part of the Birds Directive. It is a “Priority species in the Swedish Forest Protection Act” and should also be protected according to the Bern Convention. Although the capercaillie would like to have access to the sparse pine forest found on the outcrops, it needs protective forest with spruce nearby, according to the book “Tjädern och urskogen” by Joelsson and Oldhammer. It should ideally be a mosaic of moist spruce forest with bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus), swamp forest and pine forest. In addition to sparse pine forest, a good courting ground should also have elements of spruce trees, according to SLU Swedish Species Information Centre (Artfakta).
Goodyera repens: An orchid red-listed as vulnerable that grows in several places in the Tyresta Nature Reserve. It is linked to old conifer forest with bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus) and moss carpets with high and even moisture levels. Just the kind of forest that can be found in several places in the Tyresta Nature Reserve but which is threatened. Goodyera repens is very sensitive to drying out and needs a semi-shady location. The orchid is strongly threatened by forestry measures, writes Nitare (2019).
Previous articles in English about Tyresta Nature Reserve:
The Tyresta Forest Foundation fells old trees in the Tyresta Nature Reserve
Letter of demand to The Tyresta Forest Foundation: Stop the logging in the reserve!