In the 19th century, before forestry had taken off in earnest in Sweden, our forests were still very untouched.  

- It was landscape-covering natural forests that were characterized by being multi-layered - different trees hole about noise in different sizes.

We could have trees that were 400 to 600 years old that were left since the Middle Ages, says Lars Östlund.

Industrialization increases the need for wood 

But during industrialization at the end of the 19th century, a great need for wood raw material was created in Europe.

The forest companies then ventured into the natural forests of northern Sweden and felled the coarsest trees.  

- They simply picked the raisins out of the cake, says Lars Östlund.   

Forests that were sparser and younger remained.

Many perceived that forest as incompetent and there was a conviction that we had created bad forests.  

- There was an ideological side that now we will restore the forests, make them productive and deliver timber to the industry.

The most important measure then was to clear large areas - we would remove old "krafs" that were in the forests.  

“Wanted to get rid of old shit” 

After the Second World War, it was a boom and society was permeated by a belief in the future.  

- I think it was connected with modernization in society in general that we wanted to get rid of shit and we started demolishing old buildings.

It will be new and modern, which will also spill over into forestry.  

During the 1960s and up to the 1980s, large clear-cuts began to be taken up.  

- Everything was removed;

deciduous and dead trees.

The clearcuts were completely clean and stretched towards the horizon.

And then they started all over again.

They prepared soil and planted a forest that was of the same age and similar.  

Plowed the felling with the ditches 

During this time, clear-cutting was used, which is forbidden today.  

- They simply plowed the fellings.

It was awful to see.

We went into deep graves where you could not see those who walked on the other side.

They wanted the forest to be organized and agricultural - large fields with trees on them.  

In the 1970s, the idea was born that deciduous trees should be controlled to give more space to the valuable pine and spruce.

Large areas are now beginning to be aerial sprayed with the plant pesticide hormone lyre.

It is a growth hormone that causes plants to grow dead and the chemical can cause birth defects and cancer in humans. 

- You get rid of leaves, but needles survive.

It was very efficient and cheaper than going out and clearing manually.  

Protests led to a ban 

In the villages near the aerial spraying, the locals began to protest.  

- People were very upset when they saw planes spraying poison on their supporting fields and where they hunted and fished.

People gathered in the village blocking airfields and stopping supplies of fuel.  

The criticism later spread to Stockholm, where people protested outside the Riksdag in Stockholm.

The protests eventually led to a ban on hormonal noise in forestry in 1977. But by this time, the effect of clear-cutting was enormous on the forest landscape.  

- The forests that have disappeared often had high natural values.

I have thought that if they had left those forests, we would have had less nature conservation problems today, says Lars Östlund, professor of forest history at SLU in Umeå. 

Watch the entire Science World series "The Battle for the Forest" in seven parts on SVTPlay.

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