Dear colleagues and friends of traditional rural biotopes,

In the frame of Interreg IVA -project "Natureship"  some Finnish and Swedish experts visited some important grassland and wooded pasture/meadow sites in Norrtälje region 18-19.11.2010. The host was Norrtälje Foundation for Nature Conservation. I write this article in unofficial blog in English using "expert hat" in order to deliver information for colleagues and networks in Finland and abroad.

The Norrtälje region is characterised by old, and sometimes huge (!), oaks. This was estimated to be appr. 500 years old. Norrtälje Nature Conservation Foundation has carried out inventories of old trees in the region.

Carlberg calcareous meadow, under 2 hectares, restored during years carefully with love and 500 thousand crownes held some nice biodiversity such as Carex hartmannii. See C. hartmannii distribution: 

http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/mono/cypera/carex/kartor/careharn.jpg

 

Magnus Bergström from Association for Norrtälje Nature Conservation Foundation showed photoserie of restoration of calcareous meadow and lake meadow. Plowing and harrowing (!) can be sometimes used as restoration method in order to get rid of tussocks or unwanted species such as Nardus stricta. There seems to be familiar looking Bandwagen -modifications. Beside of biodiversity values, cultural historical values are also emphasised in the Norrtälje work.

Then we visited Natura 2000 bog and fen area Kornamossen. Some fens were restored and mowed by small self-pulling mowing machines. Lime favouring species such as Epipactis palustris and Vertigo -snails were present.

Old (beautiful and very informative) maps are used in Sweden when restoration is planned.

Portrait in snowy landscape...

Some areas were left intact as control areas. Removal of stumps and tussocks  were discussed...as well as logs on the nature trail.

I promised  to send for my Swedish colleague some photos of last autumn Eurosite trip of Flanders moss in Scotland. They had nice recycled plastic path elements easy to maintain and attach, not slippery ! The firm is according to notes Laint-German and contact person in Scotland was david.pickett (at)snh.gov.uk.

This is close photo of material.

...and landscape photo

After mosses and fens we admired some beautiful restoration of old-style wooded meadows and pastures near Rimbo. Here are Timo Pitkänen (from Turku University) and Leif Lindgren (from Metsähallitus Natural Heritage Services).

Quick walk through meadow in frost. The management method of this site was elborated this summer under restoration and the landowners decided that they respect history of old meadow, even though latest use of this area was pasture. Thus mowing it shall be !  The landowners (living in Skåne) are also applying this area to be private nature conservation area.

Big gnarl in oak. Swedish colleaques promised to send information about English litterature connected with wooded pasture restoration e.g. how to avoid light shocks.

Old decayed tree in pastures were piled in one part of pasture for enhancing biodiversity. The pile-area is so small that A-E special support is not diminished.

The vascular plants were difficult to observe at this time, thus we looked at some other species.  Xylobolus frustulatus, lohkonahakka, rutskinn, is threatened species both in Finland and Sweden. In Finland it is also specially protected species.

Maria Pettersson and Asser on field.

Tammenkääpä, Phellinus robustus, is threatened species as well. It has been met in SW Finland in Ruissalo and Katariinanlaakso.

In the middle you can see raidankeuhkojäkälä (Lobaria pulmonaria). I have met it in Finland regularly on elderly aspens and Pussy Willow (Salix caprea), but it seems to thrive also on cultural landscape old oaks.

 

In the working group meeting 18.11.2010 were discussed e.g indicator species publication (part of Natureship goals),  Swedish and Finnish A-E systems as well as innovative projects and innovative management methods.  We got some nice brochures from Sweden about machinery and management.

In generally it is clear that network of managenet habitats in this part of Sweden is much better than anywhere in Finland. Also the management quality and number of different stakeholders bind in the management seems to in higher level. It would be important to learn and copy  Swedish restoration experiences in Finnish hemiboreal zone. We dont have any managed fens and few wooded Quercus/Corydalis pastures in SW Finland.

Photos and text Iiro Ikonen