Finnish Society of Forest Science will organise the 28th Forest Science Day on 20 October 2020. The event is the most important annual gathering of forest scientists and those who apply science for practical forest and environmental management. Current year is the International Year of Plant Health. In the same spirit, this year’s theme of the Forest Science Day will be “Forest Health Today and Tomorrow”.
Current year has also brougth to our attention human health issues and their dependence on our environment. The corona virus passed from bats through an intermediary host to humans has caused a pandemic. Because of the restrictions to gatherings and travel caused by the pandemic, also the Forest Science Day will be organised online-only on 20 October 2020 from 9:00 through 16:40.
Forest health under changing environmental conditions is a crucial ecological, management, and economic issue in the development of forestry to meet the future challenges. Large-scale damage to forests in Canada and Central Europe has raised attention also in Finland. Just a few years ago, warm and dry summer provoked mass outbreak of spruce bark beetles in Finland. Distribution ranges of many tree-living insect species are shifting northwards. Are the outbreaks and other disturbances just a part of natural forest dynamics? Are the insect outbreaks the new normal? What opportunities do the applications of biotechnology offer for better forest health? How can we improve forest health through forest management? These are some of the questions we have on forest health. The keynote speaker of the Forest Science Day will be Professor Allan Carroll from the University of British Columbia, Canada. His talk will be “Synergies, feedbacks and tipping points: causes and consequences of an unprecedented forest insect outbreak”. We shall hear also talks by leading Finnish experts and, in the afternoon, the parallel sessions organised by the science clubs of the Finnish Society of Forest Science will take a deeper look to forest health issues from various viewpoints of forest sciences.
Check the programme from the own page of the Forest Science Day.
Forest Science Day is organised with the support from the foundation Metsämiesten säätiö.