Furniture producer Artek has purchased a forest in Finland in order to help secure supplies of birch.
All Artek’s Aalto furniture continues to be made in Finland, using birch from local trees aged between 50 and 80 years old: some of the trees harvested today were seedlings when Aino and Alvar Aalto were working together. Seedlings sprouting now will not become Artek products until the end of this century.
Artek’s birch only grows in healthy mixed forests, which conventional forest management practices in Finland, primarily clearcutting, are making increasingly rare. As a result, it began searching for forests to buy.
The first site, in eastern Finland, will be managed using continuous cover forestry, where trees are felled on a selective basis, ensuring that the thinned forest remains an intact eco-system and its biodiversity is not overly disrupted. The varied gap sizes created through selective felling provide ideal conditions for birch to self-seed naturally alongside shade-tolerant trees, increasing species diversity without the need for planting.
Silver birch trees represent 4% of Finnish forests. The specific quality of timber needed for Artek’s products only grows in mixed-wood forests, where the pioneer species birch self-seeds and grows straight and tall in search of light. Rotational forestry is the dominant forestry method in Finland, involving the clear cutting of sections of forest followed by replanting rather than natural rejuvenation. This method of forestry management does not favour the kind of quality birch wood needed for Artek’s long-lasting furniture and if continued, will steadily reduce available supply.
Artek’s own forest will foster the growth of high-quality silver birch. The goal is that 10% of Artek’s annual birch supply will be sourced from its own forest, with the first birch trees reaching maturity starting from around 2055.
The scope of the project, however, reaches far beyond this goal. Currently, less than 2% of timber in Finland is harvested using continuous cover forestry. By proving the technical and economic viability of continuous cover forestry, Artek intends to create a model which other Finnish forest owners could follow.
Image: Artek/Mikko Ryhänen
