As part of Trondheim’s climate festival, which runs all this week, Naturvernforbundet (Friends of the Earth Norway) arranged a tour to experience first-hand a couple of remnants of old forest in Malvik! We learned more about the need to preserve more old forest in Norway, to extend the size of existing reserves and the importance to change the way we manage the forest as soon as possible to bind as much carbon as possible! Today’s clearfelling practices need to be changed to more ecologically sound methods.
We learned how to spot old forest remnants from afar, that about 80% of the carbon is below ground level and that only about 3% of the forest in Norway is over 160 years old, although the amount of old forest is now on the rise. We also visited Storfossen on the Homla river and talked about the spray zone around the waterfall where several rare lichens and mosses can be found. The forest along the river in this dramatic canyon-like landscape was finally protected by law last year: http://malviknytt.no/2015/12/11/homla-naturreservat-vernet-i-dag
It was a very interesting day thanks in particular to biologist Arnodd Håpnes from Naturvernforbundet in Oslo who lectured and asked questions from the well attended tour participants together with Martin Stuevold from the local group who are pushing the plans for protecting the forest locally and also Jan Erik Andersen from Fylkesmannen who also informed about the complicated process of trying to protect more forest…