One day at the end of March, Charliene Kiffer Goude posts an Instagram story about a car chase.
For a few seconds, a timber truck loaded with about ten logs can be seen driving from the forest near the town on Galgberget in Hudiksvall.
- I live quite close to Galgberget and see that cars come and pick up timber from above where a large forestry company has felled.
But when I look, I realize that it is the key biotope next to which they go and pick up, says Charliene Kiffer Goude (V), who has a background as a biologist.
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See the car chase from a distance in the clip.
A key biotope is an area in a forest with high natural values.
The fact that a forest has high natural values means that there are, or are believed to be, red-listed species of plants and animals.
Many forestry companies today are certified or have policies that state that they do not trade in felled timber from a registered key biotope, which makes possible sales difficult.
- There is no one who can buy key biotope-classified timber, it is black timber.
In that case, I want to know what the municipality is doing with its key biotope.
And it turns out that they went to their own facility and it will probably be wood chips or wood, but I do not know what they will be used for, unfortunately, says Charliene Kiffer Goude.
Rapid felling
Deforestation has taken place on both sides of Galgbergsvägen for about the same time.
On the one hand, the forest is classified as a key biotope, but not on the other.
To cut down the trees in the key biotope, Hudiksvall's municipality's forest manager, Per Erik Eriksson, hired a subcontractor on his own - as the forestry company responsible for felling on the other hand is FSC-certified and therefore does not fell in key biotopes.
- The forestry company had no knowledge of any felling on the other side of Galgbergsvägen.
We had a felling on one side to the east, it was an assignment that the forestry company had, but here I made my own decision and moved over the contractor to take the trees on the other side, says Per Erik Eriksson.
Both sides of Galgbergsvägen have been felled, but only one is worthy of protection.
Photo: Mia Rydell / Amanda Alvarsson
Felling notification to the Swedish Forest Agency
To fell more than 0.5 hectares of forest, the landowner must submit a felling report to the Swedish Forest Agency.
The municipality submitted a notification at the end of December last year to fell an area on Galgberget of 4.5 hectares and 0.9 hectares, respectively.
The Swedish Forest Agency answers that they want a consultation, in the same vein they also classify the area as a key biotope.
In March, the municipality announces that they have regretted.
But on March 29, the same day as the felling of the key biotope on Galgberget takes place, the Swedish Forest Agency receives an email from Hudiksvall municipality stating that they will secure trees in the area.
The Swedish Forest Agency replies in a return email that they want a consultation before the tree protection is implemented.
Åsa Terent, ecologist, responds just before lunch with a picture that shows that the felling has already taken place.
It was with the photo Åsa Terent sent to the Swedish Forest Agency that the consultation case was closed.
Photo: Skogsstyrelsen / Amanda Alvarsson
In the end, 0.5 hectares of the key biotope were felled, which is the amount of landowners may fell without submitting a felling report.
But since a felling report was sent in December last year, the consultation obligation has also been fulfilled, after which the Swedish Forest Agency closes the case.
From the visual inspection that the forest manager performed before felling, you can see one tree leaning against another.
Photo: Per Erik Eriksson, Hudiksvall municipality
There were also trees with visible rotten trunk.
Photo: Per Erik Eriksson, Hudiksvall municipality
Tree protection for the public
There are divided opinions on how a tree fuse should work.
Per Erik Eriksson believes that felling in the area is a tree protection, that there were trees that posed a safety risk to the public.
- After the storms that ravaged Hudiksvall, the municipality has started felling trees in residential areas whose length can reach the plot boundary if they fall.
It is the spruce forest that can pose a risk.
It so happened that they took trees that could reach towards the road and towards the hiking trail that could pose a risk to the public, says Per Erik Eriksson.
However, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation believes that security can take place in several different ways.
- You can windproof, or you can secure in other ways.
Take obvious trees hanging against the ditches.
Just look at the County Administrative Board and how they do in their reserves.
You can also put up a sign that warns: “Be careful.
Do not walk when the wind is strong ", says Magnus Andersson at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
This has happened on Galgberget.
Photo: Amanda Alvarsson
The trees should be left after felling
When felling key biotopes, according to nature conservation experts, the trees should be left on the ground so that species worthy of protection can continue to live at the same time as it creates habitat for species that live on dead trees.
Along the Galgbergsvägen, the felling has left a forest street reminiscent of a clear-cut.
Several spruce trunks with the rotten and hollow inside are stacked on top of each other.
The municipality's own facility that Charliene Kiffer Goude followed after the timber truck is called the Farm.
The person responsible for the farm is the municipality's forest manager Per Erik Eriksson.
The municipal facility is located on a hill next to a residential area at Håstaholmen in Hudiksvall.
Per-Erik Eriksson unlocks the padlock and opens one of the large black double doors and shows us into a faluröd barn.
Inside are two piles of long planks.
He explains that all the trees that lie inside come from Galgberget and he tells us that the plank will be benches.
Other trees have become firewood and windbreaks, which are waiting to be deployed at bathing sites in Näsviken, among other places.