Urban forestry in Sweden from a silvicultural perspective: a review

The Swedish urban forests originate mainly from the old production forests and are characterised by the forestry in practice at the time of urbanisation. Forests in the central parts of older urban areas are, therefore, generally old, while forests situated in newly urbanised areas are relatively younger, with proportionately more young stands. During the 1970s and 1980s, recommendations for the management of urban forests were concentrated on recreational forests on the fringes of urban areas. The recommendations proposed more differentiation in silvicultural management; however, the direction to be taken was only weakly emphasised in the urban forestry because it had low priority in the plans of the Swedish local authorities. In the beginning of the 1990s, the ecological aspects of forests in urban areas came more into focus and successively led to parts of the urban forests being given nature conservation status. Based on a classification of the urban forests into five zones, depending on their use and size, future improvements in urban forestry are suggested. The importance of satisfying the urban citizen’s needs and demands for urban forestry is emphasised, as is the fact that more research needs to be done on the human aspects, namely, people’s perceptions, preferences, expectations, and emotional feelings about urban forests. The regeneration of the urban forest, the management of young forests, the use of coppice with or without standards in urban areas, and the importance of forest edges and glades also give cause for further studies.