In March 2024, Metsä Group announced that from May 2024, its contract entrepreneurs would begin to use Phlebiopsis gigantea in stump treatment to prevent rot fungi spreading through the stump and roots into the ground and surrounding living trees. Stump treatment is required when the average diurnal temperature is above 0 °C. Urea has previously been used as a treatment agent. However, its production involves the use of natural gas, and when it dissolves, it generates carbon dioxide emissions.
The move to Phlebiopsis gigantea has now been largely completed. In some harvester models (around one fifth of all the machines in use), technical deficiencies related to the use of Phlebiopsis gigantea have been detected. We have asked the machinery manufacturers to fix these. These harvester models will continue to use urea until the manufacturers have fixed the deficiencies.
The replacement of urea with Phlebiopsis gigantea in stump treatment implements Metsä Group’s principles of regenerative forestry and reduces fossil carbon dioxide emissions from harvesting.