- Damn crap forest!

says reindeer herder Tomas Stenlund.

He penetrates the forests in the Malå reindeer grazing area in Västerbotten.

Here his reindeer will try to find food this winter.

It's bushy, dense and tangled.

The reindeer's most important winter food is the white lichen that many people probably associate with decorations on Advent candlesticks - the reindeer lichen.

But there is no such thing left here.

- Neither lichen nor reindeer want to be here anymore, says Tomas Stenlund.

Not even the birds thrive here.

The reason is that lichen needs light and free surfaces to thrive.

But when large forest areas have been felled in the reindeer grazing areas, they have since been replanted densely with a fast-growing pine that has made the forests dense and dark.

The lichen is plowed down by forest machines

But the biggest problem for the reindeer is what is called soil preparation.

After forests have been cleared, the land has been plowed up and the lichen has been buried underground.

Research from SLU, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, shows that in just over 30 years, about half of the lichen cover has disappeared from the lichen-rich forests in the Malå reindeer grazing area.

"Should we keep reindeer husbandry in the future, which is based on the reindeer finding their own food, forestry must change," says lichen researcher Per Sandström at SLU.

He is now working on mapping the lichen to help forest owners find it so they can save such areas during felling.

Sveaskog defends forestry

Sveaskog, which owns large areas in the reindeer grazing areas, does not agree that the location of the lichen is critical, but says that the lichen has been disadvantaged by the old-fashioned way of using the forest.

- Soil preparation is also done today, but now we are really trying to adapt it to conditions when it comes to lichen availability, says Olof Johansson, forest policy manager at Sveaskog.

"Could just as easily have paved in the woods"

Reindeer herder Tomas Stenlund has taken a needle to an area that is almost empty of vegetation.

Here, forest machines have plowed the ground and no lichen is left.

- They could just as easily have paved here, he says.

It's the same effect.

Watch the entire Science World series "The Battle for the Forest" on SVTplay.

The series is also broadcast on Mondays in the World of Science on SVT2.