Demonstration and implementation

The aim of the WP is to:

1) Demonstrate the use of water protection guidelines, methods and planning tools in the management of riparian forest, drainage systems and beaver dams ­ based on the outputs from WP2 and WP3 in order to avoid leaching of nutrients and hazardous substances.

2) Train end-users to apply water protection guidelines, methods, planning tools and monitoring systems in the management of riparian forests, drainage systems and beaver dams.

3) Prepare recommendations for monitoring the impacts of the management of riparian forests, drainage systems and beaver dams on water quality in a harmonized way in the BS countries and demonstrate their use.

4) Demonstrate measures for increasing the value of beaver as a resource for landowners and hunters, by providing training courses on processing, use and marketing of beaver products and services.

For demonstration and training purposes both permanent and digital sites are established and documented in all participating BS countries on the main topics (i.e. riparian, drainage and beaver). The number of areas differs between the countries, reflecting the interest of the topic and the country size. The purpose is to integrate current and new knowledge into the course material. On permanent areas guidelines and planning tools will be demonstrated in situ, on the digital areas demonstrations will be done as models but based on actual data. Using digital demonstration areas, larger number of areas could be established and locally adapted. At both types, emphasis will be on conservation aspects as well as on nutrients and hazardous substances. For demonstrating how monitoring of impacts a runoff and water quality monitoring station is established to one permanent area per country. In Finland and Sweden existing monitoring stations are used when possible. For demonstration of the management of riparian forests, a film will be produced to reach a wider audience.

A 4.1: Establishment of demonstration areas. Demo areas of two types are established:

1. Demo area type “monitoring” (including installation of instruments for monitoring). In each participating country, there will be at least one demo area per main topic with some exceptions:

- two riparian demo areas in Sweden;

- no beaver site in Finland;

- two demo areas in Lithuania since beavers here are widespread and of certain interest:  the first demo area in the catchment area of the river Nemunas (Minija sub-catchment), the second demo area in the catchment of the river Šventoji); one of the largest inflows to the Baltic Sea. As far as possible, demo area locations were selected in close vicinity to each other within each country, in order to gain synergies and regarding travel and establishment costs.

2. Demo area type “virtual”. On the virtual areas, all measurements are conducted but the demonstrations are virtual. The demo areas are a part of the forest and water system, where the virtual maps developed in WP 3 are shown, and where the smart phone drainage app developed in WP 3 are shown. In addition to a general and thorough descriptions (soil/peat parameters, stand parameters and beaver populations), depth to ground water maps, blue targeting maps and hill shade maps will be produced on all areas.

Based on these basic inputs combined with the newly produced guidelines and applications from WP3 these considerations are demonstrated at a practical scale in the demonstration sites. The areas are also used for monitoring on run­off of hazardous substances and nutrients. In order to establish base­line data, the permanent areas have to be established directly starting the Project.

Output: Site description of established demonstration and virtual areas

Output description: The output contains a thorough description of the areas, both for the areas where physical actions will be taken as well as the 'virtual' areas (where actions only will be conducted as models). The output contains:

• ­ How depth to ground water and hill shade maps form the basis for physical forest planning;
• ­ Usage of drainage tools;
• ­ How to use beaver dam tools;
• ­ Description of actual and “virtual” demonstration sites ­ Instruction films.

The transnational value is that demo areas are established in several countries based upon the jointly written guidelines and tools from WP3. This means that WP 4 shows the exchanged knowledge adapted to relevance in each country.

Target group(s) and use of the main output: The output from this group of activities forms bases for the training courses. The main output, demo areas are distributed in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden and Finland. Timeline: periods 1–4.

A 4.2: Training courses: are organized in the demo areas, based on the output from WP2 and WP3 focusing on the three main topics as drainage, riparian zones and beavers. Timeline: periods 4–5.