THE HISTORY AND TRANSFORMATION OF A SCANDINAVIAN BOREAL FOREST LANDSCAPE SINCE THE 19TH-CENTURY

We investigated the transformation of a large (135 000 ha) forest land scape in boreal Sweden from the end of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century. Historical documents were used to obtain quantitativ e data on fire influence, historical logging, the development of fores t management, and the ecological changes of the forest landscape over the last century. The imprint of the fire-regenerated preindustrial fo rest is still discernible in the present landscape, although very impo rtant ecological structures; e.g., old trees and multiple-storied stan ds, have been removed and fundamental processes, e.g., forest fire, ha ve ceased. The 19th century boreal forest landscape was shaped by recu rrent forest fires and was characterized by continuous multistoried ol d-growth forest, containing also a deciduous component that no longer exists. Our data indicate that many of the interpretations of previous natural landscape properties used as base-line conditions in forest m anagement must be seriously questioned. Historical records and their l imitations when used for reconstruction of forest stand structure are discussed.