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ABSTRACT. In order to understand the use and control of resources by indigenous households and bands, information on territorial division is crucial. However, although indigenous resource use has been quantified [...]

(Received 22 May 2009; accepted in revised form 7 August 2009) ABSTRACT. The indigenous Sami people of northernmost Europe have developed unique adaptations that enable them to cope with harsh [...]

In studies on natural dynamics, biodiversity and reference conditions legacies of preindustrial human land use are often neglected. In this study, using archaeology and dendrochronology combined with field surveys on present forest characteristics, we assessed the naturalness of a protected forest landscape and examined the role of indigenous peoples in shaping forest structure in the past. Our results show that the studied Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forest conforms to the generally accepted impression of pristine forests and that it has a long history of human utilization. Areas with human presence over long time periods, especially in and near settlements, show significant differences in current forest characteristics compared with the rest of the landscape: the forest is younger (mean age 140-190 years compared with >300 years), the volumes of deadwood lower (8-13 [m.sup.3]*[ha.sup.-1] compared with >20 [m.sup.3]*[ha.sup.-1]), and the tree species composition is substantially different from the surrounding forest. We suggest that these disparities are strongly linked to past land use and that indigenous people can alter ecosystems substantially and that the legacies of their activity may last for centuries. Consequently, in ecological research and conservation strategies, forest characteristics should always be considered in the light of their historical context. Resume: Dans les etudes portant sur la dynamique naturelle, la biodiversite et les conditions de reference, l'heritage laisse par l'utilisation preindustrielle des terres par l'homme est souvent neglige. Dans cette etude, nous avons evalue la naturalite d'un paysage forestier protege et examine l'effet sur la structure de la foret qu'on eu dans le passe les autochtones, a l'aide de l'archeologie et de la dendrochronologie combinees a l'inventaire sur le terrain des caracteristiques actuelles de la foret. Nos resultats montrent que la foret de pin sylvestre (Pinus sylvestris L.) que nous avons etudiee correspond a l'idee generalement acceptee de foret vierge mais qu'elle a egalement une longue histoire d'utilisation par l'homme. Dans les zones ou la presence humaine s'est fait sentir pendant de longues periodes, particulierement dans et pres des endroits ou l'homme s'est etabli, il y a des differences significatives entre les caracteristiques de la foret actuelle et celles qu'on observe dans le reste du paysage. La foret est plus jeune (age moyen de 140-190 ans comparativement a > 300 ans); les volumes de bois mort sont plus faibles (8-13 [m.sup.3]*[ha.sup.-1] comparativement a > 20 [m.sup.3]*[ha.sup.-1]) et la composition en especes arborescentes est substantiellement differente de celle de la foret avoisinante. Nous croyons que ces differences sont etroitement reliees a l'utilisation passee des terres mais aussi que les autochtones peuvent modifier substantiellement les ecosystemes et que l'heritage de leurs activites peut se faire sentir pendant des siecles. Par consequent, dans le cadre de travaux de recherche en ecologie et de strategies de conservation, les caracteristiques d'une foret devraient toujours etre examinees en tenant compte du contexte historique. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction Extant forest that has never been logged or cleared for agriculture has a very high ecological value and is widely considered to be truly pristine. It is often used [...]

Abstract: Culturally modified trees (CMTs) in northern forests are rare traces of past human activity that provide unique information on past land use and the relationship between people and forests [...]

Prior to Christianization, initiated by the Swedish Crown and Church during the seventeenth century, the religion of the native Sami people of northern Scandinavia included animistic beliefs centered on animal ceremonialism. The Sami religion evolved in the framework of hunter-gatherer subsistence, and landscapes were laden with religious significance. The authors of this essay seek to highlight the significance of sacrificial sites as ethnic and religious demarcations in times of conflict between Swedish society and the Sami. We focus especially on sacrificial wooden objects as representations of religious space, discussing three sacrificial sites from different periods and representing a geographical gradient. We conclude that wooden sacrificial sites were still frequent and prominent features of the Sami landscape during the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century in northern Sweden. However, in the following century, the indigenous religion was forced into secrecy. Today, elements of indigenous religious space, as indicated by place names and oral traditions, reflect but fragments of a landscape that was once a coherent whole.

High in the mountains between Norway and Sweden, archaeological survey has brought to light a trail marked by standing stones at regular intervals and tall enough to show above the winter snows. In the absence of any cultural material, the erection of the stones was dated by the diameter of the lichen spreads upon them, and corroborated by a study of the documents and radiocarbon dates. The authors argue that this was not an indigenous trail but one constructed by a Norse chieftain probably around the ninth century AD to gain safe access to the fur-trading Sami. Keywords: Late Iron Age, Early Middle Ages, Viking, Norway, fur trade, Norse, roads, Sami, trails, Introduction Roads, trails and paths can provide information about the social, political and economic organisation of societies (Earle 1991; Davies et al. 2005; Pipo & Hunt 2005). They are tangible [...]

The authors present a unique long record of inner bark use by the Sami people of northern Scandinavia extending back to 2800 BP. Consistent patterns with respect to the direction and size of bark peeling scars shows that common values and standards were early applied. They further conclude that inner bark was important as a regular food and a vitamin C source at these northern latitudes. Bark-peeled trees as biological artefacts in forests also provide important data to understand subsistence strategies and spatial patterns of land use unique to areas with long winter seasons. Keywords: AMS dating, dendroecology, Sami, innerbark, forest history., Introduction Native peoples collected the inner bark of trees for diverse purposes across the northern hemisphere up until the late nineteenth century (see e.g. Eidlitz 1969; Erichsen-Brown 1979; Stewart 1984; [...]

Modern forestry, which mainly consists of clear-cutting, is one of the most important factors influencing todayâs boreal forests. In Sweden, the breaking point for modern forestry is generally considered to be around 1950. Recently, our common knowledge of the implementation of clear-cutting in Sweden has increased, and new research indicates that clear-cutting systems were already applied before the 1950s. In this case study, we used aerial photographs from the 1940s to analyze the extent of contemporaneous clear-cuts and even-aged young forests in an area in northern Sweden. Our results show that almost 40% of the study area had already been clear-cut by the end of the 1940s, but also that clear-cutting had been applied to 10% of the forest land in the early 1900s. This implies that the historical development of forestry in northern Sweden is more complex than previously thought, and that certain proportions of the forest land were already second-generation forests in the 1950s. Our results have implications for the use of concepts such as âcontinuity forestâ, suggesting that this concept should employ a time frame of at least 100 years.

Sami reindeer herders in northern Fennoscandia have historically cut trees with high quantities of arboreal lichens to feed their animals during harsh winters. In this study we analysed temporal and spatial patterns of lichen-tree cuttings of Scots pine in a remote forest landscape in northern Sweden. We wanted to test the hypothesis that repeated cutting of such trees may have had long-lasting effects on the forest ecosystem that are still discernable today. Our analyses included an inventory of remaining lichen-tree stumps, and a field survey of forest variables to relate structural variation within the forest to these cuttings. We used dendrochronological methods to date stumps and reconstruct forest structure. Our results show that more than 7,000 trees were cut for this purpose over a period of almost 300 years within an area covering 6 km. Lichen-tree cutting was most intense during the late 18th century when ca. 600-1,000 trees were cut during each decade. We did not detect any significant relationship between past lichen-tree cutting and present small-scale forest heterogeneity, and suggest that this might be due to the small size of the cut trees and the long time elapsed since most of the cuttings. We conclude that vestiges such as stumps from lichen-tree cutting are highly valuable for our understanding of past land use. Furthermore, since they are located in an unlogged and very old forest, this highlights the need to acknowledge the interconnectedness between ecological and cultural values of such forests and the need to identify and protect them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the export-oriented forest industry played an essential role in the industrialisation of Sweden at the end of the nineteenth century. A very important factor was the available watercourses: these could be used to transport timber from inland forests to the sawmills on the coast. The aim of this study is to analyse the transformation of one river in boreal Sweden, the Vindelalven, during 1820-1945, caused by the introduction of large scale floating of timber. The most prominent feature of this development was the exploitation of a landscape without any industrial infrastructure. Production volumes and the scale of production within the forest industry increased radically from the mid-nineteenth century and transformed the landscape of both the forests and the rivers. The transformation of this natural watercourse, by building different kinds of floatway structures and dramatically changing the flow of water, can be divided into four characteristic periods: i) 1820-1850, ii) 1850-1900, iii) 1900-1945, and iv) from 1945 to the end of the log driving era in Vindelalven in 1976. The many different activities and the lengthy time period have resulted in a fundamental transformation of the river and its ecological characteristics, and have therefore left an almost indelible imprint on the river Vindelalven. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Logging history and the study of reference conditions in Scandinavian boreal forests has tended to focus on Scots pine dominated ecosystems. This paper presents a regional study of pre-industrial forest conditions and examines the effects of the industrial exploitation of ecosystems dominated by Norway spruce in northern Sweden. Historical records covering a period which preceded industrial logging in the study area (1917â1927) were used to obtain quantitative data on forest structure and influence of forest fires. These data were compared with a modern data set (2003) to analyse changes due to the industrial transformation of the forest. The early 20th century landscape was dominated by old, multi-cohorted spruce forests and mixed coniferous forests. It was found that fire affected both the structure and composition of the landscape. In post-burnt areas, even-aged forests dominated by deciduous species were the principal forest type. Between the early and modern data sets, profound changes in tree-species composition and age structure were documented. While the total volume of deciduous species increased substantially, the coverage of forests dominated by deciduous species decreased. There was also a significant increase in pine-dominated forests and in the total volume of pine. The industrial transformation of the studied landscapes has had profound effects on the structure of spruce forests, but much less so on deciduous forests. The study concludes that the present forest structure is a function of past management regimes, and that future transformations of the landscape will continue, thus affecting the natural variability and biodiversity of the forests.

The tradition to blaze trees to mark trails and boundaries is very old in northern Scandinavia. The disappearance of culturally modified trees (i.e. trees with trail blazes) and changes in forest structure along a section of an old bridle trail in boreal Sweden was analyzed using historical maps and forest surveys from the period 1876 to the year 2000. Remaining blazed trees were located during a field study and selected scars were dated. In total 104 scarred living and dead trees were found. The scars originated from the early 1500s to the early 1900s. Analysis of the forest surveys showed that the forest along the trail was dominated by older trees, and that the majority of the scarred trees probably were present, throughout the 19th century. By the mid 20th century logging had begun to affect the tree age along the trail and in 1974 no stands older than 180 years were present. A conservative estimate shows that around 90% of the original blazed trees have vanished. The trail was interpreted as have being lined for centuries with scarred trees which gradually have been destroyed during the 20th century. Culturally modified trees constitute an unique source of information for understanding pattern of old trails as well as of past human land use and movement in the landscape prior to the 20th century. This biological archive have to a large extent been destroyed by forestry activities and it is therefore very important to survey, recount and protect the trees that are still present.

The harvesting of timber for commercial purposes in northern Sweden began in the early 19th century. Logging operations expanded quickly and soon affected all the forested lands of the region as companies sought large-diameter timber. This study of the Ammerån Valley reveals that logging brought with it changes in forest ownership as private companies bought productive forest land from independent farmers. In addition, the nature of the forests changed as the old-growth areas were replaced by managed forest lands.

Human activities that involve land-use change often cause major transformations to community and ecosystem properties both aboveground and belowground, and when land use is abandoned, these modifications can persist for extended periods. However, the mechanisms responsible for rapid recovery vs. long-term maintenance of ecosystem changes following abandonment remain poorly understood. Here, we examined the long-term ecological effects of two remote former settlements, regularly visited for -300 years by reindeer-herding Sami and abandoned -100 years ago, within an old-growth boreal forest that is considered one of the most pristine regions in northern Scandinavia. These human legacies were assessed through measurements of abiotic and biotic soil properties and vegetation characteristics at the settlement sites and at varying distances from them. Low-intensity land use by Sami is characterized by the transfer of organic matter towards the settlements by humans and reindeer herds, compaction of soil through trampling, disappearance of understory vegetation, and selective cutting of pine trees for fuel and construction. As a consequence, we found a shift towards early successional plant species and a threefold increase in soil microbial activity and nutrient availability close to the settlements relative to away from them. These changes in soil fertility and vegetation contributed to 83% greater total vegetation productivity, 35% greater plant biomass, and 23% and 16% greater concentrations of foliar N and P nearer the settlements, leading to a greater quantity and quality of litter inputs. Because decomposer activity was also 40% greater towards the settlements, soil organic matter cycling and nutrient availability were further increased, leading to likely positive feedbacks between the aboveground and belowground components resulting from historic land use. Although not all of the activities typical of Sami have left visible residual traces on the ecosystem after 100 years, their low-intensity but long-term land use at settlement sites has triggered a rejuvenation of the ecosystem that is still present. Our data demonstrates that aboveground-belowground interactions strongly control ecosystem responses to historical human land use and that medium- to long-term consequences of even low-intensity human activities must be better accounted for if we are to predict and manage ecosystems succession following land-use abandonment.

Reindeer husbandry and forestry are two main land users in boreal forests in northern Sweden. Modern forestry has numerous negative effects on the ground-growing and arboreal lichens that are crucial winter resources for reindeer husbandry. Using digitized historical maps, we examined changes in the forest landscape structure during the past 100 years, and estimated corresponding changes in suitability of forest landscape mosaics for the reindeer winter grazing. Cover of old coniferous forests, a key habitat type of reindeer herding system, showed a strong decrease during the study period, whereas clear-cutting and young forests increased rapidly in the latter half of the 20th century. The dominance of young forests and fragmentation of old-growth forests (decreased patch sizes and increased isolation) reflect decreased amount of arboreal lichens as well as a lowered ability of the landscape to sustain long-term persistence of lichens. The results further showed that variation in ground lichen cover among sites was mainly related to soil moisture conditions, recent disturbances, such as soil scarification and prescribed burning, and possibly also to forest history. In general, the results suggest that the composition and configuration of the forest landscape mosaic has become less suitable for sustainable reindeer husbandry.