Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The following thesis is a study of the forest history on the island of Ängsön-Marskär concentrating on the last three hundred years. The island is located in the administrative province of Stockholm, the local community of Haninge and it is situated approximately seven kilometres east of the island Ornö in the south of the Stockholm archipelago. The questions this thesis attempts to answer are: How where the natural resources on Ängsön-Marskär used through the centuries? How has the state of the forests developed since the 16th century? How will the nature develop onwards? The thesis is based on archival sources for Ängsön-Marskär and the surrounding areas. A field study was conducted where the entire island was investigated using an objective forest inventory method.

The first map material existing over Ängsön-Marskär is from the year 1711. The north and the west part of Ängsön were then covered by forests. The rest of the island consisted of pastures lands and meadows. The first permanent household on Ängsön settled in the year 1848 and the island was then inhabited until 1883. This was the most intensive period of land use in the history of the island of Ängsön-Marskär. In the beginning of the 20th century, logging was done and during the second world war large areas of the old pastures lands were cleared as they had become overgrown. Ängsön-Marskär become a bird preservation sanctuary in 1983, resulting in landing prohibition. In 1986 the island was set aside as a nature reserve and consequently all hunting was prohibited and the whole island was left for free development. The nature on Ängsön-Marskär is today changing towards a state that has never before existed in the island's history.

The former land use on Ängsön-Marskär can be systematised using the elevation above sea level. There are three levels that each represent a different type of land use. The future forests will probably develop differently for each level. Level number one are the lowest parts, ranging between sea level and the height curve for five meters as the top limit. This land has been used as pasture land and has also been cultivated. Today large Scots pines grow here as well as Norway spruces, many of which are storm damaged. Level two consists of the forest areas situated higher than five meters and lower than ten meters above sea level. The land use in this zone has differed over the years. The forest is not likely to dramatically change in the nearby future. Level three is located higher than ten meters above sea level. These exclusively consist of non-productive land where small Scots pines grow and the nature is relatively undisturbed. The climate is the dominant factor influencing the stands and the future changes will be very small.

In this thesis I present an alternative management plan for Ängsön-Marskär with the goal to protect the island's culture- and nature history in combination with supplying good breeding conditions for the bird life. Level one should be powerfully cut in order to restore the old pastures, and then maintained with grazing sheep. Levels two and three should be left for free development. The island's nature would then resemble the landscape historically found in the area.

It is easy to misjudge the age of the archipelago Scots pines because of their tendency to grow in abnormal "carrot" shapes, having broad bases and thin crowns. In order to make a correct visual estimation of the pines ages one must investigate several other parameters than the appearance. The most important is to classify on which level they grow.