The central forestry bureau as it exists now was organized in 1883 as
the Domain Bureau in the Department of Agriculture with, at present, a
forester as General Director, and under it a forestry corps
(_skogstaten_) (reorganized in 1890) which has charge of the public
forests, and also of the forest control in the private forests where
such control exists outside of the Conservation Boards. For the purpose
of this administration the country is divided into 10 districts, each
under an inspector (or _öfverjägmästare_); the districts are divided
into ranges (_revir_), now 90, each under a chief of range (or
_jägmästare_) with assistants and guards (_kronojägare_); the
nomenclature of the officers suggesting the hunt rather than the forest
management. In addition, 6 forest engineers are employed on working
plans, engineering works, and in giving advice and assistance to private
owners who pay for such service.
When it is stated that the ranges in the northern provinces average over
300,000 acres of public and 400,000 acres of private forest; in central
Sweden 150,000 acres of public and 145,000 acres of private forest, and
in the southern provinces nearly 55,000 acres of State and communal
forest, it will be understood that the control cannot be very strict.
The net revenue from the State forest during the last 30 years has
increased from $300,000 to $1,750,000.
The management of even the State forests can only be very extensive. The
State still sells mostly stumpage, rarely cutting on its own account.
The lumbering is carried on very much as in the United States by logging
contractors, and the river driving is done systematically by booming
companies. Selection forest is still the general practice, now often
improved into group system, although a clear cutting system with
planting has been practised, but is supposed to be less desirable,
probably because it entails a direct money outlay or else because it was
not properly done. A seed tree management preferred by private owners
for pine seems frequently not successful. Of the State forests 90% are
under selection system, and of the private forest 60%.
In the southern provinces where planting is more frequently resorted to,
2-3 year old pines and 2-5 year old spruces, nursery-grown, 2,000 to the
acre, are generally used or else sowing in seedspots is resorted to,
which is more frequently practised in the middle country.
Some 10,000 acres were, for instance, planted by the forest
administration in 1898, at a cost of $2 per acre, and the budget
contains annually about $20,000 for such planting.
That private endeavor in the direction of planting, has also been
active, is testified by a plantation of over 26,000 acres, now 35 years
old, reported from Finspong Estate.
Complete working plans are rare even for the State forests, a mere
summary felling budget being determined for most areas, the trees to be
cut being marked.
Under instructions issued in 1896, working plans for the small
proportion of State forest management by clearing system are to be made.
In these an area allotment method is employed with rotations of 100 to
150 years.
Forest fires are still very destructive, especially in northern Sweden,
although an effective patrol system, greatly assisted in some provinces
by watch towers, has reduced the size of the areas burnt over. The
coniferous composition and the dry summers in the northern part together
with the methods of lumbering are responsible for the conflagrations. In
this direction too, the activities of the Conservation Boards have been
highly useful.