There is no reason to believe that clear-felling worsens the ecological situation in forests. In Finland, however, the area of continuous cover forestry should be increased.

“I do not agree that one forestry system should be considered the only right one. Balance is important!”, says Sauli Valkonen, a researcher at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).
Finland uses two forestry systems: long-rotation forestry, where a stand is felled in a clear-cut, and continuous cover forestry. Valkonen does not want to recognise either of them as the sole dominant method.
It is easy to criticise clear-felling as a nature-destroying form of logging. Botanist and publicist Seppo Vuoko, who writes extensively on ecological issues, argues that the open areas created after clear-felling are particularly important for ensuring biodiversity.
Clear-felling does not just provide timber; it also creates habitats for butterflies, insects and vascular plants. Some butterfly species that suffer from habitats depleted by agricultural activity find new “homes” in clear-cut areas.
A significant part of forest flora biodiversity, such as seeds, is permanently present in the soil. A stand at harvesting age, which contains many large trees, is not a suitable habitat for all species; there are species that can only begin to develop in clear-cut areas.
After clear-felling, the seeds typical of a harvest-age stand remain in the soil, and this flora is preserved until the stand reaches harvesting age again.

“Many insects and half of Finland's diurnal butterflies breed in young forest stands, which partially compensates for disappearing meadows. The red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) is a bird species that only benefits from clear-felling. When undergrowth grows in a felling site, these species move on to other open areas,” explains Vuoko.
Clear-felling accounts for less than 1% of total forest land in Finland.
For forestry based on clear-felling to be ecological, it is important to ensure that clear-felling is not predominant. By observing this, species that are capable of moving will relocate to suitable habitats.
In Finland, 0.5–0.7% of the total forest area is harvested through clear-felling annually. Most of the timber is sourced from private forests in southern Finland, where the average clear-cut area is only 1.4 hectares.
Clear-felling is also criticised because it supposedly destroys berry cover, such as bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus), in these areas. Vuoko, however, believes the opposite is true – that clear-felling has a beneficial effect on berry bushes.
In forests with an intact canopy, bilberries propagate through vegetative reproduction. This means one plant can spread over several hundred square metres, even though it looks like each branch is a separate plant.
During clear-felling and subsequently, by disturbing the soil structure, the vegetation formed by a single bilberry plant – a clone – is broken up, and subsequently, these “separate parts” can reproduce via seeds.
This is a prerequisite for the sexual reproduction and natural regeneration of genetic resources for bilberries and cowberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea). It is also a prerequisite for evolution. “The basis of evolution, or in other words, the development of species, is new plants that have grown from seeds,” says Vuoko.

“Continuous cover forestry areas should be increased”
Valkonen would still like to see the area of continuous cover forestry increased. “From an ecological perspective, it is desirable in the future to increase the areas of forest that are permanently covered by a tree canopy. Currently, such forests are effectively only found in protected areas,” says Valkonen.
Forests managed using the continuous cover forestry method often do not look like forests with a tree canopy, especially if the management goal is profit. That is how people perceive it, but ecological requirements and public opinion do not always coincide.

“From an ecological point of view, the canopy closure of a stand is usually sufficient. Such forests have thicker undergrowth, whereas in forest areas based on clear-felling, the undergrowth is often completely cleared before harvesting,” points out Valkonen.
Furthermore, continuous cover forestry stands have trees of varying heights, meaning the forest has multiple canopy layers at different levels, which also increases the amount of canopy closure.

The clear-felling method is also being improved
Clear-felling, as a logging method, is constantly being refined. The boundaries of felling sites where clear-felling is planned are defined to better blend into the surrounding landscape, and groups of growing trees are retained according to the forest owner's discretion and the needs of various species.
Thanks to the clusters of retained trees that gradually die off, and especially the standing dead trees that are left behind, the volume of dead wood—crucial for many forest species—is increasing. According to studies on endangered species, this is the most important factor as to why the proportion of endangered species among monitored species began to decrease by 2010.
Admittedly, for a few years after trees are felled, clear-cut areas do not look particularly pleasant. However, the situation soon improves.
Within five years, areas prepared for planting seedlings are occupied by undergrowth, and the new forest stands reach nearly two metres in height. Within ten years, the trees grow branches 3–4 m long, the branches of adjacent trees meet, shading the undergrowth, where forest-typical species begin to establish themselves. Slow-growing woody plants grow back.
Vuoko would, however, like to change a few things in forest management. “Sometimes the soil structure is excessively disturbed. Larger areas are prepared for planting seedlings than are necessary,” says Vuoko. He would like to lengthen the rotation time between clear-fells.
S. Vuoko believes that people would get to know the forest better if they visited commercial forests more often. “People would see the forest with their own eyes in all its diversity. By visiting only national parks, one cannot get an objective picture of Finnish nature,” says Vuoko.

This article uses as a source the article “Clear-cutting – a felling method suitable for Finnish forests” published in the magazine “TerveMetsä”: ⟦https://smy.fi/en/artikkeli/ecology-does-not-need-to-prevent-clearcutting/⟧