Attitudes and viewpoints of community residents concering the municipality of Sala’s forests and silviculture program

The municipal forests of Sala cover an area of 6 000 hectares, starting in the vicinity of the city and reaching north. At the same time as residents make abundant use of the areas closest to the community for outdoor activities and recreational purposes, the forest is of great economic value and also worth protecting for environmental reasons. These conditions make forestry in periurban woods more complex than conventional forestry, why a good understanding of the needs and demands on the forest and silviculture program is required. The purpose of this study is to depict the usage of the forests owned by the municipality of Sala, to set forth the common view of the silviculture program implemented by the municipality and to chart the expectations the community has on the forests and forestry of the future in the municipality of Sala. The survey part of this paper consists of the interviews of thirteen individuals representing nine interest groups. As expected the views of these individuals varied widely but some results were expressed by more or less all of them. They prefer full-grown and varied stands of trees. They reject of logging debris such as branches. They have a positive or neutral attitude to the silviculture program conducted by the municipality of Sala. They admission that conflicts have evolved concerning forest operations by the municipality but that at present these seem to have been resolved so that there are no ongoing disputes. In addition all groups viewed the information provided by the municipality of Sala regarding forest operations as something quite positive. In conclusion, the survey results of this paper are similar to those of previous studies and suggest there is a chance that the opinions given by the respondents reflect the opinions of the general public living within the municipality of Sala. As the results indicate, greater attention ought to be given to the sharing of information regarding the silviculture program implemented by the municipality. Annual information meetings with users and interest groups and the utilization of information boards and newsletters concerning planned forest operations are suggested as a practical means of improving the forestry of the municipality of Sala