SWEDISH FOREST – word count x 2,810

1. Follo us to the heart of the

2. Swedish Forest

3. The stream is a glittering beautiful sight, the trees full of

twittering creatures.
I’m lying here lazy, an idle child in the lap of my mother, Dame
Nature
Gustaf Fröding, 1860-1911

4. As far back as man can remember, the forest has played the bad
guy in our collective imaginations. And of course it has given
Swedes their fair share of dark tales. The mythical shadow of the
enchanting skogsrå (a half-girl, half-demon who lures woodsmen to
their doom, see page XX) is never far away. But in this vast and
varied land, the forest is also a place of leisure, of beauty and of
nature; a place to live, for both man and animal; a place to work,
and the backbone of the domestic and export economies. Of
Sweden’s 450,000 square kilometres land mass, a staggering 60 per
cent (an area a little larger than the UK) is forest. Because of this,
the Swedes have a very close relationship with the forest. It is a part
of their hearts and minds. For many centuries Swedes have
inhabited the forest and its environs, cohabited with its animals, and
lived and thrived on both.
Adam Reuterskiöld owns and manages 280 hectares of forest, 20
kilometres west of Stockholm; forest that has been in his family
since the 1850s. He is a modern embodiment of the balanced
relationship that Swedes have long had with the forest. “My goal is
to pass it on to my children in a better condition than it was in when
I inherited it,” he explains. Some 50 per cent of Sweden’s forest is in
private ownership and, as is typical of many of these owners, Adam
lives off – and in – his patch of forest. “My land is my business. I
harvest the trees and sell the wood,” he says. “But I have a
responsibility to care for my land. I work closely with environmental
management here to ensure as much of the forest as possible is left
untouched, but is still accessible.”
Access is something Adam values very much. When not working the
forest he spends his time wandering it, picking berries and
mushrooms and hunting elk and deer. He’s not alone. In Sweden all
people have right of access to all uninhabited land. Known as
allemänsrätt, it is a freedom that is deeply entrenched in the
psyche. As Adam says: “I have a duty to keep my forest looking
good for people who use it.”
Mattias Klum is a Swedish wildlife photographer. He has travelled
the world, creating an extraordinary diversity of shots for, among
others, National Geographic magazine. But he is most at home
when at home: deep in the Swedish forest. “The forest in Sweden is
the emotional backbone of my life,” he says. “It’s like a release
valve, it enriches my soul. Without the Swedish forest and the
animals that live there I would never have started doing what I do.”
Those same animals were responsible for man settling in Sweden in
the first place. The elusive wolf, bear and wolverine; the majestic,
soaring golden eagle, so-called king of the forest; the gangly,
awkwardly regal elk, Sweden’s largest native creature – all these
forest dwellers have sustained man for thousands of years with
meat, bone, feather and fur. Today, hunting the forest’s natives is
tightly controlled, with culls limited to strict numbers or totally
banned. But that doesn’t deter the estimated 300,000 registered
hunters who regularly stake out the forest for hours on end for the
chance to level their sights on a passing elk. “Hunting, especially
elk and deer, is a valid activity,” says Adam Reuterskiöld. “It helps
to control rampant populations that would cause much damage to
young trees. The sport also provides an income for the landowners
who control the hunting rights, plus meat for the freezer.”
If Sweden’s reliance on the forest’s animals is more for sport than
survival these days, its relation to the forest itself has become very
important to the economy. Forestry and related wood, pulp and
paper industries have become a billion krona business. “The forestry
sector is the economic engine of Sweden, generating more net
export income than any other industrial sector,” says Ingela
Carlsson, head of group PR at Holmen, one of Sweden’s largest
forestry, paper and wood companies.
Like all big business, the forestry industry has its detractors.
Amanda Tass works for Save The Forest, a Swedish non-profit
organization that works to protect old-growth forest: “It might seem
like we have a lot of forest in Sweden, but most of it is no older than
40 years. Since the 1950s the forestry industry has been extensively
clear-cutting the forest, removing every tree down to the root.
Although all forest companies now replant at a greater rate than
they remove, they usually replant the fast-growing cash cows of
forestry: spruce and pine, regardless of which trees they remove.”
Amanda explains the problem with this: “There are thousands of
species that are dependent on wood of various types and at various
states of decay. There are, for instance, at least 700 species of
insect that eat only oak. We are at a stage now where Swedish
forest is just 16 per cent broadleaf trees, an unnatural bias of pine
and spruce. We estimate that clear-cut forestry has put 1,800 forest
species on the threatened species list. Most are insects, mosses and
lichens. The valuable biodiversity of Sweden’s forest is being
decreased.”
Gunnar Isacsson, chief entomologist for the Swedish Forest Agency
concurs, but says that there is hope: “We are working closely with
the education of forest owners. They receive subsidies for planting
broadleaf trees, and we work with them to encourage partial
harvesting, not clear-cutting. Over the last 20 years we have pushed
harder for a better balance between forestry and preservation.”
A small but growing band of companies and individuals are working
with the forest in a much more sympathetic way. Companies like
Gränsfors Bruk. Gränsfors makes axes. Hand-forged and ground,
with a 20-year guarantee, they are probably the best axes in the
world. “Our philosophy is to keep it simple,” says Daniel Bränby,
Gränsfors’ third-generation family owner. “By making top-quality
axes by hand, we eliminate the need for paint, glue and epoxy used
on inferior axes. Ours are just a piece of steel and a wooden
handle.” With the introduction of the chainsaw in the 1960s, the axe
as a forester’s tool all but disappeared. “My father realized there
was a market for quality axes made the old-fashioned way,” Daniel
explains. “We make axes for enthusiasts, campers and
outdoorsmen. We’ve done it for 100 years and we will continue to
do it.”
It’s a philosophy shared by Stellan Thagesson, a landowner who
manages about 50 hectares of forest in the south of Sweden. “I
inherited this forest from my father,” he says. “I have no children so
I have no one to pass the forest on to. But it was here before me,
and it will be here long after I’ve gone.” Stellan is part of a local co-
operative of landowners that makes charcoal in traditional burning
ovens, tap and ferment wine from birch sap, and sells firewood to
local schools, among other projects. The products are all sold
locally. He explains the production process, which involves 20 hours
of slow burning and two days of cooling of birch, oak and alder
woods. “Half the wood goes up in smoke. That’s nature’s half,” he
smiles. “Our product is a bit more expensive, but it’s the best;
handmade, local. Good for the grill, good for the forest.”
Every movement has its leading light, and if the likes of Daniel
Bränby at Gränsfors and Stellan Thagesson have one, it is probably
Håkan Strotz. Håkan is a trained forester and local politician with
the Green Party. He is an outdoorsman, adventurer, hunter,
storyteller (most of which seem to involve charging grizzly bears
and guns without bullets) and Renaissance man. Together with his
biologist-turned-designer wife Ulrika, he runs Urnatur, a design
company and eco lodge.
“Everything we do here is about the environment and in particular
the forest,” says Håkan. A wiry, energetic, bright-eyed enthusiast,
he is a survival expert at home in the forest. He forages for food,
makes fire with two sticks and knows how to make a pair of
trousers, a pot of glue and a length of twine from a dead deer.
“What we want to create here is a place where what happens, what
we eat, what we do and how we live is dependent on the forest,” he
explains. The lodge, called Wood Hermitage, is a series of five
cabins and two tree houses (all hand built by Håkan) set in beautiful
untouched forest. There is no electricity, only paraffin lamps, wood-
burning stoves, a wood-fired sauna and solar-powered showers. “All
the buildings here I made from trees from our forest,” he says. “And
the firewood, too. Otherwise we leave the forest untouched and
unmanaged – as nature intended. We serve guests meat from our
farm and mushrooms, herbs and berries from the forest. To me it
makes much more sense to use our forests for more ecotourism. It
helps to restore the forest’s natural balance and it is money making.
Forestry in Sweden makes approximately 60 Euros per hectare per
year. To make a living you need a good 400 hectares of production
forest. If you run ecotourism you can make an economically viable
enterprise with one-tenth of that land. We make more here in a
weekend than we would with a whole year of forestry.”
The story of the Swedish forest is really a story of two forests: the
managed and manipulated that supports big business, and the
untouched, old-growth forest that supports biodiversity, myths and
folklore and enterprising smallholders. For the sake of its future
generations, Sweden needs to balance both in some sort of natural
harmony. With people like Håkan Strotz at the helm there is a good
chance this will happen. n

To see our Swedish forest film log on to www.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

5. golden eagle
king of the forest

With a body length of one metre and a wingspan well over two, the
golden eagle is Sweden’s second-largest bird of prey, after the sea
eagle. Known also as “the King’s eagle”, it is capable of preying on
young reindeer and foxes. Despite its fearsome aspect, it prefers
the remote forests of northern Sweden. Eagles mate for life.

6. The eco lodge

Håkan Strotz

“I made all the buildings here at Urnatur out of trees from our
forest. Otherwise we leave the forest untouched and unmanaged –
just as nature intended. To make a living in clear-cut forestry you
need a good 400 hectares. If you run ecotourism you can make an
economically viable enterprise with one-tenth of that land.”

7. “The forest is the emotional backbone of my life”

8. “Forestry is the economic engine of Sweden”

9. the wolf
the comeback kid

Hunting caused the Swedish wolf population to dwindle until it was

close to extinction in the 1970s. A ban on hunting allowed the
population to grow again, and the government has since decreed
that the ideal number of wolves is… 210.

10. the axe

Gränsfors Bruk

This is an old axe we found in the forest, but companies like

Gränsfors Bruk (family run for three generations) are carrying on the
traditional craft: “By making top-quality axes by hand, we eliminate
the need for paint, glue and epoxy used on inferior axes,” they say.

11. “What we eat, what we do and how we live is dependent on the

forest”

12. “It was here before me and it’ll be here after I’ve gone”

13. The Myths of the Forest

A brief guide to the spirits ho live in the oods – and hat to do if you
encounter one

14. A cold dark February night in a wood in northern Sweden, 1951.

A charcoal burner has just finished his day’s work tending his
smouldering fires and is settling down to another hard winter night
in his hut. He is lonely, tired and cold. Suddenly, outside in the
storm, he hears the sound of feminine voices calling through the
trees.
“Just the wind,” he thinks, shivering. Then there is a scratching at
his door. “Darling… darling… let me in.”
He opens the door, but there is no one there. Chilled, he remembers
the previous year when his cousin, Nils, was lured deep into the
forest by a beautiful woman. When Nils was found, three days later,
he was a depleted husk of a man. He could only jibber about a fair
maiden who had led him away, walking backwards and beckoning
him ever deeper into the forest, as he followed transfixed. Deep,
deep inside the woods, the maiden stopped. The cousin
approached, reaching out towards her angelic face, but just as he
was about to touch her golden hair, she turned around. Her back
was a hollow tree, half rotten and decaying with mould. She was a
skogsrå, literally a “spirit of the forest”.
The scratching starts again. Again the charcoal burner opens the
door and there is the most beautiful maiden he has ever seen – long
fair hair flows down her diaphanous clothes, and her head is topped
by a crown of summer flowers, even though no flowers have grown
here for five long, dark months. The charcoal burner slams the door
and spends the worst night of his life as the spirit of the woods and
her sisters rattle the shutters and claw at the roof. In the morning
he packs everything he can carry and leaves for the city. He
escapes with his wits but vows never to spend another night in the
forest.

Those who worked in the forest – charcoal burners, tar boilers,

hunters, herdsmen and lumberjacks – imagined it populated with
mystical, supernatural beings such as magical fairies (vittror) and
seductive forest spirits (skogsrå). These creatures had two
important roles: they helped to explain the unfair distribution of
fortune in those tough times, and played a colourful part in local
folklore.
The forest spirit was not only a dangerous temptress, she also
protected the wild animals from hunters. Even the most skilled
shots could miss their targets if she decided to misdirect the bullets.
Sometimes it helped to make a sacrifice to her, but one could never
be sure. The skogsrå was extremely erratic. Whether angry or in a
playful mood, she simply led one astray in the forest. (There was
one ingenious way to defeat the skogsrå and find your way out
again: by turning one’s jacket or sweater inside out.)
In northern Sweden during the summer, cattle grazed on the
mountain pastures in the forest. By Michaelmas, celebrating the
second harvest, both herdsmen and cattle returned to their villages.
It is believed that when they left, the fairies moved into the forests
and stayed in their chalets during winter.
The fairies were short creatures, not much higher than a man’s
thigh, who mostly lived underground. Humans often encountered
them in the forest as the fairies’ daily life was very similar to their
own: they farmed and tended their cattle, quarelled with their
neighbours, got married, had children and died. Fairies could
intervene in human affairs and it is said that on rare occasions, fairy
women married ordinary men and lived with them for years. These
men wouldn’t suspect a thing until one day they might witness their
wives bending a scythe blade or an iron bar with the superhuman
strength of their bare hands!
The fairies would also invite local women to their underground
homes to assist them during
a difficult childbirth. In return, these women were given gifts of
leaves or sticks, which many of them threw away once they were
back above ground in the human realm. But those who kept the
gifts would find that when they returned to their home above
ground, the leaves and sticks had turned into valuable gold and
silver objects. Other women might find they were now able to see
things others could not – a glorious reward from which they could
profit.
We still find it easy to empathize with fairies and spirits, and these
stories and legends are symbolic of local customs and beliefs. The
supernatural world was a sort of mirror image of the empirical
world, and it was through the tales of these fantastical creatures
that the social order was maintained, oral codes laid down and the
breaking of taboos was punished.
So, if you go for a walk in the Swedish forest today, don’t be
frightened. Just treat the woods with respect. If you meet a skogsrå
or vittror be polite and accept any gifts that are offered. And
perhaps carry a GPS device!