Forest management practices in reduction of damage caused by Pine weevil (Hylobius abietis L.) and Cervidae animals in newly planted Scots pine forests.

Key words: forest regeneration, Conniflex, Trico, mechanical site preparation

Forest regeneration is crucial stage in commercial forest management because actions during this stage impact future forest productivity and value. Scots pine is one of the main tree species in forestry of the northern part of Europe. Foresters have to overcome different risk factors during regeneration process and two of them are seedling damage by Pine weevil (Hylobius abietis L) and browsing by herbivores of Cervidae family. Pine weevil is one of the main forest pests in Europe that damage regenerated coniferous stands. Damage caused by this pest can produce 70% mortality of planted seedlings. Another significant risk factor is browsing. With increase of deer (Cervidae) population the damaged forest area also increases to the extent that foresters choose other tree species for regeneration. The mitigation of these risks is possible with appliance of forest management practices.  There are used different repelents against Cervidae animals.  Regarding Pine weevil, due to restrictions on insecticide use in EU, different protective coating materials have been developed, and several studies show that soil preparation before planting reduce amount of damaged Pine seedlings and increase possibility of successful regeneration.  We evaluated if and how forest management methods - soil preparation techniques (spot mounding, disc trenching) in combination with different plant protection products (Conniflex, Trico) - affects the degree of damage caused by pine weevil and Cervidae animals to Scots pine seedlings one and two years after outplanting in four forest stands in Latvia. The results from this study shows that application of Conniflex reduce number of damaged trees by 16.8% first and 20.3% second year after outplanting compared to untreated seedlings. Soil preparation has significant impact on reduction of pine weevil damage. The best results have been achieved by planting with Conniflex treated seedlings on spot mounds (2.4% damaged trees compared to 48.9% in unprepared soil without treatment). Repellent Trico do not provide additional protection against Pine weevil and do not have long term protection effect against browsing. Overall conclusion is that combination of soil preparation and use of appropriate coating material (Conniflex) can provide sufficient protection without usage of insecticides, and Trico has to be applied before winter season to achieve effect of protection.