About The Forest And Its Importance PART II (Final)

 OLD GROWTH FORESTS FIRMLY FIXED IN OUR MIND'S EYE

 By 

Gylve Fenriz Nagell

 Pretty well all of Norway's prductive forest area is populated by trees with a biological age equivalent to that of a snot-nosed kid - or at best a teenybopper! Quite evidently something is amiss.

 

 WOODLAND FAIRY TALE

Let us draw close to the heart of the matter; even going as far as to claim that the very few remaining patches of virgin forest are pricelss "footprints" that could lead the way to a deeper understanding of the forest's essence, both with regards to how a natural forest ecosystem actually works, and how our identity and culture is affected by old growth forest. After all,  Asbjornsen and Moe's folk tales, not to metnion Kittelsen's illustrations, have fixed old growth forest firmly in our mind's eye.
Nobody wants to hear a fairy tale entitled "The lad who stripped the forest together with the troll", stripping the forest", thank you very much. Sad to say, but unfortunately absolutely true, the real world has produced something far worse than either the lad or the troll choping down those old bewhiskered spruces - namely, over-enthusiastic and hyper-efficient foresters.

 

 

THE GIANTS WERE THE FIRST TO GO

Since the time of Kittelsen, forests have been ransacked in the search for mature and broad-girth trees. In the first waves of exploitation it was largest and most valuable giants that were felled. Even today, hidden deep in the wilderness and inaccessible by road, relics from these giants can still be found as stumps. We tremble at the thought of the efforst expended in days of yore to fell and drag out this heavy timber from the woods. A very strong whop must have been used as driving force. Then as now, force and motivation was present in the form of strong demand and high prices.
The English, for example, bough huge quantities of timber for the rebulding of London following the Great Fire of 1666. As England was accumulating vast riches from her colonies at that time, Norway's old growth forest was one of the first to feel the relentless pressure of international market forces.

  

FORESTS IN WRETCHED CONDITION

Repeated waves of selective felling aimed at the largest trees resulted in ever decreasing dimensions and ages of the remaining trees. Our forests were in a wretched state at the beginning of the last century due to reforestation. Legendary foresters such as Agnar Barth despaired of the situation. After the middle of the 20th century Norway's forests were converted to present-day forest stand replacing management. These days our forests are characterized by stands of trees that are homogeneous in terms of species, age and size. Look out from the window next time you fly to or from Gardermoen and you will clearly see how the stand replacing management has transformed the forest landscape into a patchwork quilt of felled areas and patches of completely identical trees in a homogeneous stand. The variations you see in the colour and structure of the patches reflect the tree species and the age of the stand.

UNIFORMED SCHOOL KIDS STANDING IN A ROW

Mechanisation accompanied the rapid introduction of forest stand management across the board. Youthful vitality - trees standing rigidly to attention in seried ranks - characterises our present day forests, which you can almost hear growing. Manna from heaven in the form of nitrogen and high concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere provide an added boost to the rate of growth. At the moment our forests are producing more timber than is being felled, and the number of trees is greater now than at any time since forest valuation began in 1919. Fine and dandy, our forests deliver the srvices we want and are reputed, of course, to be entirely "sustainable." Our forests also expected somehow to save us from unpleasant cutbacks in out fossil-fuel fired welfare state by shying away from our own CO2 emission.
Nevertheless, and this is the crucial issue, the majority of trees in today's forest are very young and small in relation to natural age and size. Scarcely half our forest area has trees that are less than sixty yars old, and the majority of trees here are under 20 cm in diameter. Proper old growth forest is conspicuous by its absence. A pathetic one per cent of the productive forest area vhas trees that are more than 160 years old. With the knowledge that a spruce tree can be 500 years old in Norway, and that a pine tree can be nearly twoice as old, it is an undeniable fact that out productive forest area is populated by trees with a biological age equivalent to that of asnot-nosed kid - or at best a teenybopper. Equally undeniable is the fact that there is precarious shortage of trees that have reached their natural predetermined age,size and demise.

 

 

ANCIENT TREES DESERVE RESPECT

Do we really need large and old trees that are more or less in a state of decay? From the biological point of view the answer is a resounding "Yes". As it happens, there is plenty of documentation showing that such dying trees are the habitat of a great number of species, which in turn comprise part of the biological diversity. As it has been decreed at the highest level that the loss of biological diversity in Norway has been halted by 2010, it is self evident that we have to a large, old and where the trees should be located in order to preserve the biological diversity, is something we know previous little about. But some things we do know: the longer a tree is allowed to live and the taller it grows, the greater the number of species that will find their way to, and establish themselves in, the tree. Similarly, there will be a positive correlation between  biodiversity, the tree's age and the tree's size. This is fundamental explanation why old trees are especially important as bearers of biological diversity, the tree`s age and the tree's size. This is a fundamental explanation why old trees are especially important as bearers of biological diversity. The bark of a tree changes in character when the tree ages, and in time the bark become highly suitable asa habitat for a multitude of creatures. One can find myruad small creeping things and lichens on the bark of old spruce trees. Here we find a good example of a partially unknown biodiversity that society has commited itself to preserve. Goodness knows how much diversity is lost when tree felling is undertaken in forests containing 500-year-old spruce -  something that happened through a dastardly act that ended the life of the oldest spruce tree registered in Norway. For 507 years this tree managed to ward off every attack from merciless cold during the Litle Ice Age to the warmth of modern times before being chopped down. We sincerely hope that after 507 years'succesful struggle for survival in our harsh climate it ddid not meet its Waterlooby simply ending up as an advertising flyer or roll of toilet paper if it did really come to the worst , then it is damning evidence of a lack of reverence towards life forms that deserve more respect.

 

CULTURAL INSPIRATION

From a cultural prespective, large and dying trees play an important role by accentuating the fairy-tale forest's special atmosphere that is so evocatively portrayed in Kittelsen's art. In recent times this mood has been important as a source of inspiration for a cultural phenomenon that has no equal in Norwegian cultural history in terms of intrenational attention. We are refering ofcourse to "Norwegian Black Metal", which is more famous in the outside world than all of Norway's sports celebrities combined.

CIVILISED TREATMENT

Forestry has given a tremendous boost to our civilisation. Therefore it is only right and proper that, in return, we treat our remaining old growth forest in a civilised manner. Our tenacious and dying giants are of great importance in many and truly varied connections. It shouldn.t costs Norway very much preserve and utilise these gems for inspirational and research purposes. Research funds have already been granted by the Research Council of Norway, for which we are very grateful.


Article originally published in THE MAGAZINE and AFTENPOSTEN (13th April 2008)

SEE ALSO:

About The Forest And Its Importance PART I