The County Administrative Board's game cameras at arctic fox dens show that it has been a successful puppy summer in the county.
Currently, 28 litters are noted.
It is the highest number since 2015, when the arctic foxes produced a total of 31 litters.
Over the years, volunteers and employees at the County Board have worked to create better conditions for the arctic fox.
They have, among other things, hauled out fodder on the mountains, taken inventory of the trunk annually and medicated scabies outbreaks when infection broke out.
In addition, red foxes are hunted by local and employed hunters to protect the arctic fox.
- It's incredibly cool to see how all the work since the 80s is yielding results, says Malin König at the Environmental Protection Unit, County Administrative Board Västerbotten.
Sustained positive trend
According to Malin König, statistics about arctic foxes are misleading because the size of the litters varies a lot depending on how the limbs look.
But the trend since 2015 is generally positive regardless of limb year.
- We get litters out even when there are bad years.
In the past we sometimes got no litters at all.
Since 2015, it has started to pick up speed in the entire mountain chain, and it has been an incredible increase for the entire tribe.
And it depends on the efforts we make, says Malin König.
Also works well for the endangered white-backed woodpecker
In the county's deciduous forests, things happen to the white-backed woodpecker, which is also one of the county's most endangered species.
Since a sensational nesting at Stora Tuvan in Umeå in 2019, the number of nestings has increased steadily year by year.
- Together with municipalities and forestry companies, we have restored deciduous forests around the county.
Thanks to the white-backed woodpecker project and their knowledgeable enumerators, we have also been able to search the county for birds in an incredibly good way, says Malin König.