Elks and voles

The Elk (Alces alces) can cause significant financial damages to commercial forests. Four out of five sapling stands in southern Lapland have been damaged by elks. Elks love to feed on sapling stands that include taller deciduous trees among pine saplings. The best way to avoid damage is to take care of the saplings on time and allow elk hunting in the area.

There are also much smaller creatures that dine in sapling stands, namely voles. The vole populations expand heavily in good years, and while these critters eat grass and weeds in the summer, the decreasing food supply drives them to eat tree bark at wintertime. In the north, damage is caused especially by the Tundra Vole (Microtus oeconomous) and Bank Vole (Myodes glareolus). The best way to prevent the havoc wreaked by voles is to favour their natural enemies such as owls. You can place nesting boxes for owls at the edges of sapling stands.