Modern clear-felling : from success story to negotiated solution

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Agriculture and forestry in Sweden

since 1900

– geographical and historical studies

hans antonson & ulf jansson, eds.

the royal swedish academy of agriculture and forestry

Skogs- och lantbrukshistoriska meddelanden No 54

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Published with the ﬁ nancial support from:

Stiftelsen Moritz Fraenckels fond (The Moritz Fraenckel Foundation)

Marcus och Amalia Wallenbergs minnesfond (The Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Memorial Fund).

Cover photo:

Askersby south-west of Sunne in the province of Värmland.

photo: Jan Norrman, National Heritage Board, 1989.

The book can be ordered from:

The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry library (KSLAB)

P.O. Box 6816 6816 6816 SE-113 86 Stockholm-113 86 Stockholm-113 86

Phone: + 46 8 54 54 77 20 E-mail: kslab@ksla.se

Skogs- och lantbrukshistoriska meddelanden No 54

Published by: Unit for Forest and Agricultural History (ANH

Published by: Unit for Forest and Agricultural History ( ), The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry

Series editors: Lars Ljunggren, Per ThunströLars Ljunggren, Per ThunströLars Ljunggren, Per Thunstr m & Stefan Eurenius

Editors: Hans Antonson & Ulf Jansson

English translation: Roger Tanner, Ordväxlingen AB, and Charlotte Merton, Charlotte Merton Translations

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Printed by Exaktaprinting AB, Malmö,2011

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Modern clear-felling:

from success story to negotiated solution

ebba lisberg jensen

the method of felling all trees in a large area at the same time – clear-felling – dominated Swedish forestry for much of the twentieth century. This was particularly the case in state and company-owned forest, es-pecially in areas of coniferous forest, which is to say the northern two-thirds of the country. The method’s dominance and its dramatic im-pact on the northern Swedish forest landscape did not arise by accident; on the contrary, it was typical of its day. Clear-felling is nothing if not a token of a historically speciﬁ c, com-plex interaction between Nature, society, and individual.1

When there are changes in the way Na-ture is used, they arrive in conjunction with changes in social circumstances. These in turn frequently derive from changes in economic structures and relationships, such as condi-tions of ownership or production. Whether these changes are for the better or the worse is open to discussion. It is clearly the case that ecosystems respond to the social order’s inﬂ u-ence regardless of whether demand is low or high, and that ecosystems in their turn affect the raw materials, cultivation techniques, and systems of use that might be feasible and ef-ﬁ cient.

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the emergence of clear-felling; not only what it can tell us about Sweden’s forests as a resource in a country in the throes of modernization, but also about the resistance it encountered, above all at the beginning and end of the twentieth

century. Clear-felling became an expression of

modernity. In terms of what was actually done

to the forests, I share the environmental his-torian Anders Öckerman’s view that only in 1945 did forestry become modern, and more speciﬁ cally that modernity coincided with forestry’s mechanization. Yet given the nature of the discussion among forestry experts, and how they viewed Sweden’s forests and what they ought to produce, I would argue that modernity was to some degree already evident in forestry as early as about 1890. It was only in the mid twentieth century that it began to dominate in practice.

Several of the professional foresters who have since spoken of their work emphasize the fact that clear-felling was seen as the

com-ing idea, ﬁ t for a new age when the Swedish

forest exports industry would triumph, be-coming central to the construction of Sweden as a modern country. Berggren et al. refer to the historian Reinhart Koselleck’s terms space

of experience and horizon of expection.2_These

terms are relevant to the forestry context be-cause they make it possible to understand the professional foresters’ efforts to transform Swe-den’s forest landscape. When experience on the ground was swapped for a modern, more theoretical understanding, a different way of viewing their newly acquired professional role – a new space of experience – emerged. No longer was it traditional experience that deter-mined the outcome; instead it was the ability to stage new futures.

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agriculture and forestry in sweden since 1900 ebba lisberg jensen

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ﬁ gure 1. Pine heath, dimension-felled 25 years before. This type of residual forest was the subject of

consid-erable debate amongst professional foresters: would it recover and become productive again? There is dead wood lying on the ground, which probably dates to before the area was felled. It is not known who the boy and men are. The man in the middle appears to be more expensively dressed, and was perhaps a professional forester conducting an inventory. Båtsa in the parish of Arjeplog, Norrbotten. photo: Karl Erik Kallin, 1924.

source: Skogsbibliotekets arkiv.

Background

It was in the second half of the nineteenth century that the international timber trade reached Sweden. From the west coast, tree-fell-ing moved north-east, and once in Norrland it travelled north-west up the rivers creating a so-called timber frontier.3_{Buyers on the}

Con-tinent wanted heavy timber to use as building timber and saw timber. All the available work-force was soaked up by forestry.4_Where

previ-ously the occasional tree had been taken, en-tire forests were subject to something far more invasive, as the best, straightest, and heaviest trees were taken ﬁ rst in what is called selective felling. The investment costs were small, the proﬁ t margins good, and people were certain in their belief that there would always be for-est to fell in future (see Figure 1).

The decade before the turn of the twentieth century saw the end of the period Öckerman has called the forest management period, forest management period, forest management period 1820–

90.5_{The idea of forest management had made}

serious inroads even in the thinly populated forests of the Norrland region. When the ﬁ rst timber frontier had passed, Norrland’s forests were no longer an extraction zone for primary development. In forestry circles, people began to talk about systematic sylviculture, which Israel af Ström had propagated for a half-cen-tury before.666_{The professional foresters found}_{The professional foresters found}

they had a common goal in ensuring there was regeneration so that timber would con-tinue to be produced in the long-term. A bur-geoning number of works on how this was to be achieved made their way into print.

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According to the National Board of For-estry circulars of 1867676 and 1869696 , which were in force until 1902, forest should be selectively felled at intervals of forty, sixty, and eighty years.7_{Trees of marketable dimensions were}

felled, and the remainder were left until ready. The idea behind selective felling was that smaller trees would come to maturity during the interval in rotation, and that sown seed would have sufﬁ cient light to grow once the larger, shade-casting, thirsty trees were gone. The forest had previously reproduced itself, and this was how they imagined it would con-tinue. As long as there were new forests to fell selectively, the method appeared sustainable and destined to last – and the forest was re-tained as the basic structure.

Changing times

However, the requirements of the timber mar-ket altered, and soon even timber of smaller dimensions was in demand. The director of the College of Forestry, Konrad Gottfrid Hol-merz, and a principal secretary at the National Board of Forestry, Veit Thorsten Örtenblad, maintained that Sweden’s forests would re-generate better if smaller trees were felled as well.8_{They argued that the remains of earlier}

forestry measures, and above all of dimension felling, stood in the way of effective regenera-tion. The issue proved to be extremely con-troversial in educated forestry circles. In 1887 an article was published in the journal

Skogs-vännen (The forest friend) in which the

pseu-donymous ‘Tempura mutantur’ (sic; which translates roughly as ‘the times are changing’) made the case for this new approach to fell-ing and regeneratfell-ing forest. The anonymous writer contended that it would be better to fell entire stands than single or small groups of trees. The question was which method in the long term offered the best and most proﬁ table regeneration in Norrland’s forests. Several de-baters would leave their particular mark on the discussion. Örtenblad, then a professional

forester in the Central Ångermanland forest district, pursued the idea that it would be bet-ter to fell all the trees in a given area. His idea of clear-felling was thought newfangled, and was much disputed. Long experience with tried and tested methods came up against a new way of viewing the forest, and a new space

of experience was created. of experience was created. of experience

There were signs of a growing clash be-tween the generations of forestry experts. The advocates of clear-felling were not even taken seriously. Writing in autobiographical vein, Anders Holmgren noted in 1950 how the ‘bosky “uncles” in Arvidsjaur’ had seen his colleague Örtenblad as something of a joker, a troublemaker.9_Holmgren’s

autobiographi-cal account represents his and his sympathizer Örtenblad’s views as a young, fresh approach to felling and regeneration. The innovators were of the belief that the only way forward was a radical break with tradition, both in ide-as and in practice. A new discourse coalition, a gathering of like-minded people, began to take shape among those who advocated clear-felling. They gave prominence to one anoth-er’s arguments, quoted one another, and em-phasized one another’s examples drawn from forestry theory and practice.

The introduction of clear-felling marked the advent of modern forestry; a capitalist eco-logical revolution, as the environmental histo-rian Carolyn Merchant has called this radical transformation of society’s relationship with Nature.10_{The relationship between society}

and forest thus embarked on a change that would leave it based on the demand for raw

materials. In an ofﬁ cial inquiry, Örtenblad

promoted the idea that forest-land should in the ﬁ rst instance produce timber. Traditional forest grazing in Norrland, where in the sum-mer most stock roamed freely in the forests (as discussed by Jesper Larsson in this anthology) was something he viewed with scepticism. Free forest grazing should cease, he argued, or at least be limited.11_{The fact that state forests}

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enough no longer suited the men of the new age (see Figure 2).

A carefully chosen alternative

– orderly selective felling

However, as the turn of the century ap-proached not everyone was as enthused by the idea of clear-felling. It could prove a dan-gerous path, thought the professional for-ester Uno Wallmo, who in the book Rationell

skogsafverkning (Rational felling), published

in 1897, presented an impassioned discussion of existing forestry methods.12_{Despite the}

op-position and the difﬁ culties of the task he had set himself, he hoped that ‘some good will be gained’ with the book, namely that ‘a great many beautiful trees …will be saved from an untimely death’ by clear-felling. As a matter of curiosity, which may well say something about how infected the clear-felling debate had al-ready become, Wallmo had no publisher and had the book printed himself.

Wallmo’s argument against clear-felling as a method was as knotty as his subject. Yet there could be no doubt that the book addressed all of his colleagues among the Swedish forestry experts who preferred the clear-felling method. Wallmo thought that the clear-felling method had already had ‘its triumphal entry into Swe-den’, a development he hoped to counteract.13

With a rhetorical ﬂ ourish, Wallmo explained how for the sake of his conscience he had to had to had

describe and communicate his insights. One of those who begged to differ was Hol-mgren, who argued in his memoirs that Swe-den at the turn of the century was not ready for clear-felling. It was, Holmgren wrote, the rise of mass industry that heralded the advent of this new, rational form of forestry.14

Modernity in the forests

Several changes coincided both in forestry and in views on the forest at the start of the

twen-tieth century. They can be summed up using the term modernity.15_{Modernity is not tied to}

time or place, but is instead a condition that displays certain characteristics and shapes a society that is divorced from its traditional form. Among the marks of modernity is the

streamlining of the state machinery, which by

extension means an increased formalization of the civil servant’s ﬁ elds of responsibility. In the case of Sweden’s forests, modernization manifested itself in the institutions that had already been founded back in the nineteenth century: the National Board of Crown Forests became the Swedish Forest Service, the Col-lege of Forestry, and the Forestry Research In-stitute of Sweden, as Per Eliasson discusses in this anthology. White-collar workers had to be well educated and loyal to their employer. The existence of such employees is another feature typical of a society in the grip of moderniza-tion. It brought a growing need for a formal education that provided white-collar workers with qualiﬁ cations and that to a certain extent standardized the result. Öckerman writes of this process in terms of the sociology of

knowl-edge: professional foresters were both to

moni-tor how the country’s forests were run and to press on with the introduction of new meth-ods where warranted, preferably on scientiﬁ c grounds. They became academics engaged in a wholly applied ﬁ eld.1666_{The education available}_{The education available}

to professional foresters was prestigious and demanding. The foresters built up a profes-sional culture in which the individual had to adapt to the group. Manliness with a military tinge17_{to it and a talent for determined}

leader-ship became the marks of a forestry expert.18

The debate about twentieth-century forestry was to be conducted between men who were all equally sure of their ground.

Additionally, modernity also involved an explicit break with the past, with tradition. It break with the past, with tradition. It break with the past

brought a ceaseless, rapid pace of change.19

Enthusiasm in the face of change is the pre-ferred attitude in a modern society. Forestry in the early twentieth century was a strongly

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ex-modern clear-felling

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ﬁ gure 2. According to the archival note this photograph shows a clear-felled area with poor seed-trees. To

judge by the birch shoots and other vegetation it had been felled some years previously, in other words in the

1930s. It differs in many ways from later decades’ completely bare clear-felled areas. It was traditional in the

northern woodlands to turn out the work-horses in the summer to graze freely, a custom that sat ill with mod-ern ideas about how the forest ought to be managed to be as productive as possible. Stensele in the province of Västerbotten. photo: Lars Tirén, 1940. source: Skogsbibliotekets arkiv.

pansive industry that employed large numbers of people and contributed to the construction of the Swedish welfare state.20_{Consequently,}

the public debate on what forestry ought to produce had a far greater airing.

From the requirement for ﬂ exibility and adaptation was born the need for evalua-tion processes. Modern society is concerned with structural reﬂ exivity: time and money are expended analysing how a system works, discussing it, and coming up with new solu-tions; the contrast with premodern society’s acceptance of tradition and traditional meth-ods on the basis of time-honoured custom is obvious.21_{The media and specialized journals}

contribute to circulating such reﬂ ections and creating an arena for discussion. The debate

about clear-felling referred to here is an exam-ple of such reﬂ exivity.

Even the changes’ spatial impact increased with modernity. An expanding world market had local consequences.22_{A monetary}

econ-omy with a modern banking system made it possible to tap resources over longer distances and without personal contacts. Communica-tions, in the form of postal services and the expansion of the railways, meant that infor-mation, people, and goods could be shifted at spectacularly faster speeds.

Out with the old

For the pioneers of modern forestry it was an end in itself to get rid of all that was old, along

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with all traces of the older methods. A sufﬁ -ciently efﬁ cient felling method would instead bring improved regeneration, its advocates argued. The remnants of older forests should be removed so that the ground would ‘offer a receptive seed-bed and not be occupied with useless regrowth’.23_{The idea that one}

con-sciously had to set out to cultivate forest be-gan to gain wider acceptance, and scientiﬁ c achievements were readied to be spread to the masses, for example through the student asso-ciation Verdandi’s journal Om skogsodling (On Om skogsodling (On Om skogsodling

forest cultivation).24

The 1903 Forest Conservation Act re-quired that provision be made for regen-eration following felling. This meant that straightforward exploitation was ruled out in the eyes of the law. Even so, the authorities were clear about the fact that in reality the law would not be obeyed if they did not insti-tute regional forestry boards, which with the help of the county foresters and their forest rangers would ensure that decisions were im-plemented.25_{On the other hand, Holmgren}

points to a National Board of Forestry circu-lar of 1912 showing the authorities continued to warn against over-extensive clear-felling. Clear-felling was presented as a solution when stands that had once been selectively felled could not be saved for whatever reason – a central argument put forward by clear-felling advocates. In 1931 clear-clear-felling was still only recommended as a method when it was thought absolutely necessary, and even then the area was to be limited.26_{However, the}

provisions in the act were imprecisely formu-lated, according to Holmgren, which meant that the professional foresters followed the path of least resistance and continued with selective felling. Likewise, private forest own-ers saw large gaps in their forest as a nuisance, he wrote, and he noted that people thought it was better to have some form of growth than none at all, even if it was not a matter of pro-ductive forest. In this period it seemed that people did not view clear-felled areas in the

same way as we are accustomed to see them (see Figure 2).

Among those who have studied Swedish twentieth-century forest history, terms such as ‘damaged stand of trees’, ‘residual stand’, and ‘green lies’ are well known.27_{These were terms}

used to characterize the unwanted remains of earlier selective felling, but at the same time they were tools in the creation of new hori-zons of expectation. With the help of such terms one could disassociate oneself from the old forest while outlining the opportunity to restore it, manage it, and ultimately set it on the right path. Ultimately, a series of power-ful, dynamic men with large workforces at their disposal, and in time a veritable armada of machines, would in accordance with this forestry paradigm transform the entire land-scape.28

Science was a part of this stirring modern society. It was by research and calculations that one would be able to increase productiv-ity. Holmgren described in his memoirs how ‘ﬁ rmer scientiﬁ c foundations’ began to be laid when the State Forest Research Institute was founded in 1902. Holmgren was not com-pletely happy with forestry research, however, since he thought it was intent on vindicating ‘methods already put into practice’ rather than focussing on fresh developments.

All for good order

An essay by Schotte that Holmgren chose to quote presents a different argument, the good

order argument; in other words, the central order argument; in other words, the central order argument

idea in modern society. Schotte had written that selective felling of compartments, ‘since it bears greatest similarity to the compartment-felling method, is the most useful, but it suf-fers from the immense drawback that it does not bring order to the forest’.29_{Interestingly,}

Holmgren wrote that forestry ‘after many years’ discussions … abandoned … lower-sto-rey thinning and standardized, rigid compart-ments’.30_{In the light of events, we can say that}

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ﬁ gure 3. The aftermath of felling in what had once been primeval forest. A wood-cutter’s cabin still stands

there, although it was clearly blown together – whoever built it did not take the time to even the ends of the courses. Many of the trees have been left because they were judged to be of insufﬁ cient girth to be sold, even those hard up against the cabin. The advocates of clear-felling thought that much of value would be lost if these old forests were just left to their fate. Far better to clear-fell it all and replant it. Kalvbäck, Solberg, in the province of Ångermanland.

these old forests were just left to their fate. Far better to clear-fell it all and replant it. Kalvbäck, Solberg, in the province of Ångermanland.

these old forests were just left to their fate. Far better to clear-fell it all and replant it. Kalvbäck, Solberg, in the

photo: Lars Tirén, 1939. source: Skogsbibliotekets arkiv.

their time had hardly come, and indeed they would have their hey-day a half-century later.

Holmgren held his work rationalizing the Norrland forest to have been very successful. It was even better when people learned to use scariﬁ cation to turn the earth at felled sites. It was a matter of accessing the nutrients in the soil, which was easier on calcareous soils than on Norrland’s usual mor.31_Holmgren’s

inter-pretation of the Colonization Committee’s 1922 Report was that the old forest ‘must be exploited in order that its great worth should not go to waste’.32_{But in order that older,}

cul-tivated forest might be as proﬁ table as younger forest the Committee required that regenera-tion was also practiced in the older forests (see Figure 3).

From selective felling to

restora-tion – the paradigmatic shift of

1950

Despite increasing industrialization and mechanization in other areas such as agricul-ture and manufacturing, well into the 1940s forestry continued to be run largely along low technological lines. Labour was cheap and abundant, and the men often brought their own axes and saws to work. During WW2 own axes and saws to work. During WW2 own axes and saws to work. During WW there were stabs at mechanization, but they made little headway,33_{and indeed would not}

until the 1950s.34_{The ﬁ rst chainsaws were very}

heavy, had to be operated by at least two men, and sat uneasily with forestry’s strongly

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vidualized working procedures, where each man worked alone.35

The forestry modernists’ approach began to gain a hearing, however. Finding a long-term solution to what augured to be a timber shortage demanded more radical measures, es-pecially in Norrland. It was essential to come up with a new way of thinking if they were to avoid a ‘dip in future timber supplies’.36

The Forest Conservation Act of 1948 prohib-ited selective felling,37_{and shortly after in 1950}

there came a radical shift in the forestry ex-perts’ account of the Swedish forest. It was so similarly formulated both orally and in writ-ing that it amounted to a kind of mantra for modern clear-felling, or, as Öckerman writes, its ‘doxy’.38_{In an interview with a forest}

super-intendent (conducted on 17 January 1997) it was recounted in much the same terms:

When they’d spent several hundred years hack-ing down the forests by the end of the 1940s there were only scattered residual stands. It wasn’t possible to re-establish them. That’s when they realized that they had to try a new tack with forestry, and they started trying

resto-ration. That meant that you felled everything

that was left and burned the ground, and then you planted it again and the result was very beautiful young wood.39

Forest that was thought to be in a wretched state and was then duly restored would le-gitimize modernist forestry. Restoration was encouraged by several inﬂ uential people, of whom Fredrik Eberling and Joel Wretlind were the best known. Wretlind, according to Öckerman, was seen as a ‘forward-thinking clear-feller in an age of unappreciative selec-tive-fellers’.40_{On an excursion in 1950,}

Eber-ling presented a plan to restore 892,000 ha by burning, scarifying, clearing, and sowing.41

This restoration shows all the signs of moder-nity. It was on a large scale, and took place in conjunction with rising industrial demand for timber. It served an economic purpose. Where previously there had been a patchwork forest,

disorder, and muddle, it produced uniform-ity; the product of the forestry heroes of the day, self-conﬁ dent men with considerable re-sources at their command. Restoration dealt head-on with what was left of the old ways. One lumberjack reported that his local man-ager ensured not the smallest plant was left growing on any cleared area.42_{The case was}

made for restoration using research ﬁ ndings and rational argument.

There can be little doubt that in terms of growth in the forest the restoration succeeded. The largest increase, however, does not seem to have been in Norrbotten and Västerbotten, the provinces where restoration was furthest advanced, but rather in the southernmost parts of Sweden.43_{Holmgren, that combative}

advocate of clear-felling, noted dryly in 1950 that previous opponents of the clear-felling method now seemed to have changed their views.44_{Immense effort was also put into}

re-forming the methods of reafforestation: the total area afforested increased from 45,000 ha in 1950 to 75,000 ha in the mid 1950s.45

Howev-er, the volumes achieved by ‘ﬁ nal felling’ old, dimension-felled areas were so large that they too had a positive effect on felling statistics.46

Clear-felling, restoration, and mechaniza-tion were very much bound up with one an-other. From the mid 1950s it became usual to work the forest with chainsaws.47_The

avail-ability of improved, lighter chainsaws meant that a lumberjack could work far faster than before. Large gangs of lumberjacks were no longer to be found in forested districts as ris-ing levels of pay conspired with mechaniza-tion to leave them redundant.48

Growing resistance

With fewer lumberjacks and greater demands for increased felling rates came the need to effectively check the growth of underbrush and harmful insects. In the 1950s forestry companies began to use chemical herbicides and pesticides, and in the 1960s they started

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ﬁ gure 4. A mounder scarifying the ground prior to the replanting of a clear-felled area. In the 1970s the

public reacted increasingly strongly to the layout of clear-felled areas: they were growing in size, far fewer trees were left standing, and scariﬁ cation methods left them almost impassable. This felled area stretches literally as far as the eye can see. Ollsta in the province of Jämtland. photo: Roland Byfalk. Undated, probably 1970s.

source: Skogsbibliotekets arkiv.

spraying plantations with phenoxy acidic her-bicides (Hormoslyr) and dipping saplings in an insecticide, DDT, to prevent infestations.49

However, in 1962, with the publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent spring, the invis-Silent spring, the invis-Silent spring

ible, chemical, environmental problems began to attract attention.50_{By the end of the 1960s}

the lumberjacks’ trade union was singling out the use of chemicals as a work-related hazard. It was only at the start of the 1970s that pub-lic debate began to view chemicals as a prob-lem for Nature as such, but phenoxyacetic acid remained in use in forestry until the mid 1970s. It was in 1970 that the forestry company MoDo decided to stop using phenoxy acidic herbicides against underbrush.51_{The decision}

met with such surprise that there were calls for MoDo to explain its reasons for the deci-sion in writing.52_{The trend in mechanization}

was now towards larger, multi-functional

ma-chines, and felling became increasingly thor-ough. In 1971 the clear-felled area amounted to 275,000 ha per annum.53

The whole project to transform the Swed-ish forest landscape into highly productive, even-aged stands of timber began to be criti-cized. The debate about clear-felling within forestry industry seems to have tailed off, be-coming instead a debate between the environ-mental movement and the forestry industry. Fältbiologerna (the Swedish Association of Field Biologists), a youth organization that showed an increasingly keen environmental commitment, published in 1973 the contro-versial book Skogsbruk och ekologi: Fakta om

skogen och skogsbrukets miljöeffekter (Forestry effekter (Forestry effekter

and ecology: facts about the forest and for-estry’s environmental impact). The introduc-tion set the tone with a completely new way of talking about what had once been the

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ﬁ gure 5. The Association of Field Biologists demonstrating in Nyköping in 1974. Their placards announce

‘Legislate against clear-felling’, ‘Stop planting forest on our ﬁ elds’, ‘Stop monoculture’, and ‘Let your grand-children enjoy beech forests too’. This last referred to the premium that forestry policy put on more proﬁ table species such as spruce and larch instead of southern Swedish beech woods. The slogans show the environmental movement’s criticism of modern society’s relationship to Nature. photo: Bertil Brunnegård. source: Private collection.

tional success story of clear-felling and reaf-forestation:

Clear-felled areas are becoming increasingly common and are spreading out across the country. Farmland is changing into woodland. Pine-forests are spreading at the expense of broadleaf forests. The fertilization of forestry land is becoming ever more usual. Broadleaf forest is controlled with phenoxy acidic [her-bicides]. Insects are controlled with amongst other things DDT and Lindane. New species are transplanted. Clear-felled sites are scari-ﬁ ed by ploughing. Moors are drained to gain more forestry land. Monoculture is becoming increasingly common. Large machines are to a large extent taking over forestry work. The for-estry industry is expanding. But what is really happening to the environment? What are for-estry’s ecological consequences?54

In the chapter on felling, Torleif Ingelög wrote about clear-felling as a part of a larger complex in which scariﬁ cation (see Figure 4), the use of chemicals, and the new mono-spe-cies forests were all aspects of modern forest-ry. Clear-felling, however, was the one thing ‘most people can hardly avoid noticing’. It was brought up as the very embodiment of the forestry of which the authors were criti-cal. Ingelög discussed clear-felling’s negative impact on forest soil’s nutrient status, on the microclimate, drainage and desiccation, on micro-organisms in the soil, and on fauna.

The Association of Field Biologists held that large, clear-felled areas could disturb their ecosystems, which in turn could have ‘cata-strophic consequences’. The reason for what they thought of as ‘the reckless exploitation of our forest resources’ was not to be found in

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ﬁ gure 6. Many professional foresters saw the transformation of the forest landscape as a great success both

for forestry and the national economy. However, large felled areas brought both colder microclimates and soil erosion. The photograph shows Hans Odin describing what snow and the cold mean for regeneration. The identities of his listeners are unknown. Special excursion by the forest company MoDo to an unknown loca-tion. photo: Evert Jeansson, September 1976. source: Skogsbibliotekets arkiv.

mistaken strategies but in something far more profound: ‘the traditional misconception of humankind’s role as rulers of the earth’.55_The

criticism of clear-felling was a criticism of civilization, and the prominent victim in the debate was Nature herself (see Figure 5). The book concluded with the authors presenting a number of demands: a halt to forest ferti-lization, scariﬁ cation, broadleaf underbrush control, monoculture, insecticides, and the introduction of new species, and the regula-tion of clear-felling by legislaregula-tion.

The debate about clear-felling became ran-corous. The forest growers insisted that they had been acting in the national interest when they restored the Swedish forests, conjuring up ‘beautiful young woods’ from stands of trees, and productive plantations from out-lying land. They looked askance at ‘civilians’ who dared to criticize their life-work.56

At the same time as the Association of

Field Biologists were producing their polemi-cal book, a group appointed by the Minis-try of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries was at work on a report to ‘study the extent and effects of clear-felling’. They began work in 1972 and their report, Kalhyggen (Clear-felled areas) was submitted in March 1974747 . In it, modern forestry was treated as a complex of issues, including rural development, the use of chemicals, the transformation of the land-scape, and so on. The report proposed a ‘duty of care’ that would make it easier to give due consideration to conservation, while bands of trees were to be left when felling an area, and older paths were to be cleared of felling waste.57_{The report’s focus remained modern}

forestry, however, referring to the public ben-eﬁ t of high levels of productivity, with all that meant for a good supply of raw materials and high levels of employment.

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drawn people’s attention to the threat to the forest as an ecological system. They claimed that micro-organisms’ and mammals’ habitats were destroyed by clear-felling. This argu-ment was not deemed relevant in the

Kalhyg-gen report. Instead there was talk of what was

referred to as ‘the interests of outdoor recrea-tion’, especially in forests close to conurba-tions, or the interests of nature conservation. The Nature Conservancy Act of 1964 was for-mulated in such a way that one could only ‘act to prevent or regulate such elements in forestry that might have an inﬂ uence on the landscape’.58_{However, in the autumn of 1974}₇₄_{7 a}

new sentence, reﬂ ecting the report’s proposal, was added to the Act: ‘The interests of nature conservation must be taken into account.’ 59

According to Enander, the report and the subsequent debate marked a change in tack in nature conservation from a focus primarily on aesthetics to one on ecology.60_{What the}

various parties involved thought varied, how-ever (see Figure 6). During Forest Week 1976, arranged by the Swedish Forestry Association, the inconsistencies between the anthropocen-tric and ecocenanthropocen-tric approaches became obvi-ous. Forestry experts continued to argue for modern forestry’s immense value in produc-ing timber by usproduc-ing clear-fellproduc-ing and refor-estation, while environmental activists tried to hammer home their message that it was the forest’s intrinsic value that was at stake.61

The total area of trees in the forests had almost doubled since the mid nineteenth cen-tury at the same time as felling had been able to triple. The forestry experts claimed with pride that ‘there had never been so much for-est in Sweden as now’.62_{They felt under}

at-tack and misunderstood by the environmental movement:

From dedicated champions of the environment, forest people have heard themselves called ma-rauders and terrorists. It is not unreasonable for nature lovers to react like that when they unex-pectedly happen upon a newly started felling area thick with scrub. But if we search the

writ-ten documents we can easily establish that for-est people were involved in founding the ﬁ rst nature conservation and outdoors associations. … For forest farmers, nature conservation, and forestry have never been incompatible. … We are living through a period of Nature romanti-cism when the idea of the untouched, self-bal-ancing forest all the rage.63

Modernity under siege

The idea that Nature romanticism would pass proved to be incorrect. Instead, the 1970s were to be the Swedish environmental movement’s most successful period, and among young ac-tivists the defence of Nature’s intrinsic value was mixed with a more general critique of civ-ilization as a whole. That this ﬂ ourished was thanks in particular to the expansion of the welfare state. Yet the second half of the 1970s saw a recession that meant that the market for timber shrank. Felling began to lag behind growth. The notion that the forests were be-ing over-exploited spread among the Swedish general public.64

A new Forest Conservation Act was passed in 1979. Felling had dropped in the 1970s, and the new legislation increased the obliga-tions on owners to fell. Even residual forest and wasteland, so-called 5:3 forests, could be felled so that profi tability would rise.65_In 1978 the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) was given funding to work in collaboration with a panel of experts to study modern forestry methods. Theirs was an interesting attempt to describe in neutral terms both the advantages and disadvantages of modern clear-felling methods. The fi nal report discussed the problem of establishing how large the ‘really large’ felled areas were at this point, since in the offi cial statistics all felled areas larger than 10 ha were lumped to-gether in one category.66_{In the country as a} whole, felled areas that were over 10 ha in size came to 61 per cent of the total; felled areas of this size were thus the commonest sort. Felled

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ﬁ gure 7. Bildhöstvallen’s summer pasture in Lillhärdal in the province of Härjedalen. Traditionally a

sum-mer pasture was an open clearing in a sea of forest. Here the roles have been reversed. The traditional cultural environment has undergone a radical change. photo: Jan Norrman, 4 September 1996. source: Riksanti-kvarieämbetet, photo no. dbi04139.

areas with more than 25 seed-trees per ha were not counted as clear-felled.

In the 1980s the debate about forestry be-came even more strident. Among the new hot topics were the threat posed by acidiﬁ cation to the forests of west Sweden, and the issue of felling the forests in the foothills of the great mountain ranges, which had previously been thought inaccessible and unproﬁ table. There was no common ground between the envi-ronmental movement and the forestry com-panies: the forestry industry needed to fell in order to live up to the Forest Conservation Act and to produce timber for industry, while the environmental movement argued that the forest’s intrinsic value was on the verge of be-ing lost for ever. The radio journalist, Boris Ersson, published an emotionally charged exposé of the socio-economic changes twenti-eth-century forestry had brought to woodland districts. After thirty years of mechanization,

the disillusionment of the rural population was considerable.67676_{Mechanization had its}

own logic – the new machines required large areas to fell.68

It is evident that by this time the forestry industry was taking a more defensive line, emphasizing for example the responsibility they had been taking in nature conservation. One forestry company, Iggesund, for example published a small book on the subject, and at-tempted to explain how rapid forest growth could preserve natural values with varied stock and so on. Clear-felling was presented as a part of the natural forest dynamic:

People forget that the forest is dynamic, that stands of trees alter continuously from birth (planted or self-sown) to death (felling or forest ﬁ re), in the present as in the past.69

This perspective had little to commend it to the environmental movement, which

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ﬁ gure 8. Map showing the percentage of Sweden’s

land area protected in the form of national parks, nature reserves, nature conservation zones or ﬂ ora and fauna protection zones at municipal level. As is clear to see, there are municipalities in Norrbotten with very large areas protected in one form or an-other. source: Emanuelsson 2011, p. 196.

rily wanted to protect forests from felling. In Jokkmokk a branch of the Swedish Soci-ety for Nature Conservation (SNF) calling themselves Steget Före (lit. a step ahead) be-gan to look for indicator species that showed ‘the attributes of primeval forest, even if the odd stump turned up here or there’, as one of the driving forces behind the group, Karin Lindahl, wrote.70_{They were not set against all}

traces of human activity in the forest; it was sweeping change as a result of mechanization and large-scale operations that they opposed.

However, in the 1970s and 1980s the con-cept of the environment was broadened to comprise culture – the cultural environment. In 1981 the Swedish Local Heritage Founda-tion published a book on summer pastures at risk that was later reprinted in 1989 by Jämt-land’s county museum.71_{The cover picture is}

extremely interesting in the present context, and puts its ﬁ nger on how clear-felling can be pursued adjacent to cultural environments: it is an aerial photograph of the summer pastures at Väster-Hallåsan in the parish of Oviken, with a large clear-felled area in the foreground divided by a small band of remaining trees (for similar conditions, see Figure 7).

During the second half of the 1980s conser-vation-minded biologists in the USAUSAUSA coined a coined a new term that stemmed from the measure-ments made in ecological research on species variation – biological diversity.72_{The term had}

a major impact on the Swedish forestry de-bate, even if the environmental movement as yet had no effective means of imposing their demands on the forestry industry. The heart of the argument was the value of variation, the differences between types of landscape, the ages of the trees, and between plants and animals in the forests; in other words, all the phenomena that were thought to pose a threat to modern forestry. In the Swedish forestry de-bate the term biological diversity ﬁ rst appeared in print in the journal Skogen (The Forest) in 1988, where coverage of a clear-felled area in Dalarna included discussion of another report

Protected land area

%

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by Karin Lindahl.73_{The debate about}

clear-felling was thus no longer the preserve of the forestry sector, but was pursued between the environmental movement and leading ﬁ gures in forestry.

Armed with the latest scientifi c arguments, the environmental movement gained greater infl uence over the forestry debate. In 1990 an offi cial Forest Policy Inquiry was appointed that was tasked with studying the conditions necessary for long-term forest management while at the same time paying consideration to the value of biological diversity. Local and natural conditions were also to be borne very much in mind.74747_The_SNF_{set off a very heated}

debate when they handed out a brochure,

Timber vs. Forest, at the Rio conference in vs. Forest, at the Rio conference in vs. Forest 1992, and claimed that Swedish forestry threatened over 1,000 species with extinction thanks to its methods.75_{Swedish forestry companies and}

the authorities reacted strongly, and claimed that it was a stunt that had tarnished Sweden’s reputation for responsible forestry.

Environmentally aware

clear-fell-ing and the debates of the 1990s

The results of the deliberations of the Forest Policy Inquiry were suggestions that the goal of preserving biological diversity should be accorded the same weight as commercial pro-ductivity; that the term ‘ﬁ nal felling’ should be removed from the legislation; and that forest owners should themselves have greater freedom to pick their own methods of culti-vating and felling.76

With the new Forest Conservation Act that came into force in 1994, the goal of pre-serving biological diversity now had the back-ing of the law. This prompted a discussion of the extent to which this was feasible in prac-tice. In the forests there was evidence of this new concern with more shade left along wa-tercourses, greater numbers of tall stumps left standing, and seed-trees untouched in felled

areas. Acceptance of ecological values had – at least in theory – been incorporated into mod-ern practices and legislation; something that environmental sociologists term ecological modernization.77

However, the campaigns to stop all clear-felling were relegated to the sidelines in the 1990s. This was partly because the environ-mental movement was not conﬁ dent that all species worthy of protection would be pro-tected by the forestry methods then under development. Instead they were afraid that a new kind of forestry would legitimize the felling of forest that they thought ought to be protected in its entirety. This was particu-larly the case with the forests in the mountain foothills and with virgin forest. The latter was gradually replaced by the term old-growth

for-est since it was not its virgin nature as such est since it was not its virgin nature as such est

that was worthy of conservation, but the ab-sence of modern felling. The environmental movement’s new lobbying methods consisted of what they called ‘consumer information’: in other words they used modern communica-tion methods to organize consumer boycotts and internationally high-proﬁ le campaigns that described the threat to forests in Sweden, for example controversial Njakafjäll, posed by clear-felling.78

From absolute conviction to

un-certainty?

Clear-felling was at the start of the twentieth century a radical, modern idea that the general public, the authorities, and some professional foresters greeted with scepticism. Security and tradition all spoke in favour of various forms of selective felling. The advocates of clear-felling envisioned themselves producing vast quanti-ties of timber in future. They depicted their actions as public-spirited and founded on sci-ence – in other words, modern. With forest restoration, the leading experts were given the opportunity to sweep away what was left of

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the old way of doing things. Order, uniform-ity, and efﬁ ciency were the watchwords, and led to increased timber production. But as early as the 1970s criticism was growing and the forestry success story was questioned in all its essentials. The all-powerful experts fell into silence. Condemnation of the enthusiasm for clear-felling began to be felt in the 1993 For-est Conservation Act, in which production goals and the preservation of biological diver-sity were given equal weight.79_{The belief in}

uniform solutions also began to come in for criticism, and today there are opportunities for individual and local solutions. One might say that clear-felling in the ﬁ rst half of the twentieth century represented the future, but after 1970 the critics began to describe it as pernicious and outdated. Similarly, younger professional foresters gradually began to adopt some of the environmental movement’s ideals when it came to considerations of Nature and variation.

Since the 1990s the forestry industry has shown greater care in how it goes about fell-ing, the felled areas are less standardized, and more trees are left standing. Efforts are being made to spread information on how land-owners themselves can ensure greater variety in populations, species, and types of landscape on their holdings, and therefore combine pro-ductivity with biological diversity and recrea-tional value.80_{However, protests against felling}

still ﬂ are up again every now and again, and the conﬂ ict remains to all intents and purpos-es the same: dopurpos-es old forpurpos-est have an intrinsic value that ought to be preserved and possibly put to use? Does the only rational future lie in felling as much as possible while ensuring this is followed by a healthy regrowth that can in its turn be felled?

The old forest landscape is largely gone for ever. In future we can hope that improved techniques and an even greater focus on diver-sity, both in forest ecosystems and in cultiva-tion methods, will contribute to maintaining high levels of productivity and the values the

forest offers for the appreciation of humans and other animals. Yet the question of how forest should be managed will probably never be wholly uncontroversial.

Notes

1 Steiner 1993, p. 56. 2 Berggren et al. 2004, p. 26. 3 Östlund 1995, p. 160. 4 Johansson 1994. 5 Öckerman 1998, p. 241. 6 Eliasson 6 Eliasson 6 2002. 7 Holmgren 1950, pp. 161–162. 8 Holmgren 1950, pp. 161–162; Tamm 1978, p. 67676 . 9 Holmgren 1950, pp. 164–166. 10 Merchant 1989. 11 Örtenblad 1894, p. 104. 12 Wallmo 1897, preface, p. 3. 13 Wallmo 1897, p. 5. 14 Holmgren 1950, p. 168. 15 Lisberg Jensen 2002a.

16 Öckerman 6 Öckerman 6 1993, pp. 36–6–6 38; Lisberg Jensen 2010, p. 141. 17 Stjernquist 1997, p. 22. 18 Öckerman 1993, pp. 32–33. 19 Giddens 1996, pp. 13–17. 20 von Paykull 1900, p. 3. 21 Szerszynski 1996, p. 104. 22 Berman 1988, p. 16. 23 Holmgren 1950, p. 163. 24 von Paykull 1900, p. 9. 25 Stjernquist 1997; Streyffert 1962, p. 374747 . 26 Holmgren 6 Holmgren 6 1950, p. 182.

27 Lisberg Jensen 2002a; Östlund 1992, p. 26. 28 Holmgren 1950, p. 187.

29 Schotte, quoted in Holmgren 1950, p. 175. 30 Holmgren 1950, p. 169696 . 31 Carbonnier 1978, p. 95. 32 Holmgren 1950, p. 180. 33 Enander 2003, p. 44. 34 Ager 1992, p. 8. 35 Johansson 1994. 36 Carbonnier 6 Carbonnier 6 1978, p. 97. 37 Stjernquist 1997.

38 Lisberg Jensen 2002a, p. 96; Öckerman 1993, p. 38.

39 Lisberg Jensen 2002a, p. 96. 40 Öckerman 1998, p. 242.

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41 Carbonnier 1978, p. 97. 42 Lisberg Jensen 2002a, p. 97. 43 Streyffert 1962, p. 400. 44 Holmgren 1950, p. 187. 45 Enander 2003, p. 71.

46 Stridsberg & Mattsson 6 Stridsberg & Mattsson 6 1980, p. 106. 47 Enander 2003, p. 44. 48 Andrén 1992, p. 165. 49 Lisberg Jensen 2006. 50 Carson 1962. 51 Andrén 1991, p. 218. 52 Lisberg Jensen 2006. 53 Ingelög 1973, p. 83. 54 Lundwall 1973, p. 5. 55 Fältbiologerna 1973, p. 122. 56 Lisberg Jensen 6 Lisberg Jensen 6 2002a.

57 Jordbruksdepartementet 1974747 , p. 250. 58 Jordbruksdepartementet 1974747 , p. 172. 59 Ekholm 1976, p. 349. 60 Enander 2003, p. 109. 61 Olsson 1976, p. 430. 62 Hamilton 1978, p. 25. 63 Hamilton 1978, pp. 28–29. 64 Enander 2003, p. 141. 65 Enander 2003, p. 155. 66 Andersson & Hultman 66 Andersson & Hultman

66 1980, pp. 142–143.

67 67

6 Ersson 1985.

68 Lisberg Jensen 2002a. 69

69

6 Eriksson 1987, p. 13. 70 Lindahl 1990, p. 24. 71 Jansson & Raihle 1989. 72 Takacs 1996, p. 37.

73 Lisberg Jensen 2002a, p. 166. 74 74 7 Enander 2003, p. 160. 75 Svenska naturskyddsföreningen 1992. 76 6 6 SOU1992. 77 Hajer 1995. 78 Lisberg Jensen 2002b. 79 SFS1993.

80 Gustavsson & Ingelög 1994; Aldentun & Son-dell 1991.

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Östlund, Lars, 1992, “Förändringar i det boreala virkeslandskapet – virkesförrådets utveckling 1850–1991”, in Jörgen Björklund & Lars Östlund (eds.), NorrläNorrläNorrl ndsk skogshistoria. Mändsk skogshistoria. Mändsk skogshistoria. M

Modern clear-felling : from success story to negotiated solution

Agriculture and forestry in Sweden

since 1900

– geographical and historical studies

hans antonson & ulf jansson, eds.

the royal swedish academy of agriculture and forestry

Contents

Modern clear-felling:

from success story to negotiated solution

ebba lisberg jensen

424

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Background

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Changing times

426

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A carefully chosen alternative

– orderly selective felling

Modernity in the forests

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Out with the old

428

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All for good order

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From selective felling to

restora-tion – the paradigmatic shift of

1950

indi-430

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Growing resistance

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na-432

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434

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Modernity under siege

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prima-436

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Protected land area

%

%

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Environmentally aware

clear-fell-ing and the debates of the 1990s

From absolute conviction to

un-certainty?

438

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Notes

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References

440

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