Secondary forest stands on depleted peatlands in the European North-East of Russia

The lowland swamps of the Russian Federation are mainly located on lands of the State Forest Fund. After peat collection with rotary cultivator, it is quite logical to use these depleted areas to plant artificial coniferous forest stands on them, for example Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). The most favorable environment for this forest crop is low-deposit and well-drained areas with high-ash residual woody-grassy peats, underlain by light rocks. The stock of commercial wood in 40–50-year-old stands reaches 360–415 m3/ha. Areas with high peat reserves and low-ash grassy-moss species on residual peat have formed a sparse, stunted, extremely depressed forest stand in conditions of stagnant water regime. At the similar age, the timber stock does not exceed 0.1–0.2 m3/ha. All this situation must be taken into account when carrying out large-scale forest-planting operations on depleted peatlands.