Protective thickets are small-scale groups of brush and trees of varying sizes, left untouched in forest management. They add structural diversity to the forest and provide shelter, food and nesting sites for forest species. Many game species, including wildfowl and hares in particular, benefit from protective thickets.
In forest management operations, Tornator will introduce the practice of leaving protective thickets the size of 10–100 m2 in addition to groups of retention trees. Based on natural conditions, 1 to 3 thickets will be left for each hectare and about 50,000 thickets are created each year.