Finnish Society of Forest Science organised a three-day forest excursion to Estonia at the beginning of September 2022. We saw both forest research and forestry practice in Estonia, visited modern top science laboratories, felt the old days in an Estonian mansion and hiked in a hemiboreal forest. We organised the excursion in cooperation with the forest science department of the Estonian University of Life Sciences.
Estonian Forest Service’s (Riigi Metsamajanduse Keskus, RMK) board member Kristjan Tõnisson gave us a general presentation on Estonian forest resources, their governance and challenges to the Estonian forest policy.
Chief Forester Martin Tischler (right) of Tornator Eesti OÜ guided us in the company’s forest estate in Kose and told us about the company’s forest management practices. We saw also the challenges for managing sapling stands in the hemiboreal region.
Professor Marek Metslaid (back) of the Estonian University of Life Sciences told us about forest research and higher education in Estonia.
In the second morning, we divided into three groups that familiarised with the research and education in ecology at the University of Tartu, remote sensing research at the University of Tartu and social science research of forests in Estonia. Professor Ivika Ostonen (right) presented us the soil ecology laboratory at the University of Tartu.
In the afternoon, we visited the Järvselja forestry field station of the Estonian University of Life Sciences. We saw, among other destinations, the SMEAR Eesti research facility, where the relationships between the atmosphere and hemiboreal forests is studied, and a 100-yrs old aspen stand with 1200 m3 timber per hectare.
The second night we were in the mansion-hotel Sagadi where we also had a common excursion dinner. The mansion park housed both delicately sheared trees and natural-like forests.
We hiked in the Lahemaa National Park during the last excursion day. Black alder (Alnus glutinosa) grows much bigger in Estonia than in Finland.
Check the whole programme and schedule through this link.