Drivers of Change

7.4.1. Modern forestry

Forestry has been the major source of change for reindeer husbandry during the 20th century.

The effects of modern forest management practices on winter resources available for reindeer husbandry are now well known and well established (Sandström et al. 2016). Forestry affects reindeer husbandry over various space- and time-scales as reviewed by Kivinen et al. (2010).

Clear-cutting, site preparation, fertilization, short rotation times, and forest fragmentation have largely resulted in a reduced amount of ground and arboreal lichens, and restricted access to resources (see also previous sections). The consequences of forest management on forest structure and density can also deeply affect the use of migration roads for reindeer and Sami herders. This is an important issue since frozen rivers that were traditionally used to migrate have been all dammed by hydroelectric industries during the 20th century:

We don’t have the natural migration roads anymore, they are destroyed, most of them (…) It’s quite large areas that must be restored to have functioning migration roads. Those that are completely destroyed today and that we used maybe 20 years ago, it can be 5 km of forest that should be made over, over 100–200 meter-wide. Of course it’s a lot of money for forestry to repair them. But it’s a lot of money for us as well, to find other roads, maybe using helicopter to go through the area, it’s a lot of money for us to go from one place to the other if we don’t have functioning migration roads.

Lars-Evert Nutti

A direct driver of modern forest management is the forest industry that rules the demand for wood products. Looking back in history, the forest industry has progressed through different ages, or eras:

▶ a timber era that began in the end of the 19th century until the second world war, then

▶ a fibre era which has extended until the present day, and finally

▶ a biomass era that is about to begin.

The timber era sought to maximise timber production through selective logging. This management practice proved to be favourable to reindeer grazing conditions (Berg et al. 2008).

The subsequent fibre era seeks to maximise fibre production introducing clear-cutting and artificial regeneration, fertilization, creating denser and younger stands that have detrimental effects on reindeer husbandry (Berg et al. 2008; Kivinen et al. 2010). Finally the biomass era intends to maximise biomass production. This will be achieved through the regeneration of denser stands and even shorter growing cycles. Another means is the plantation of exotic species such as the North American lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) that grow faster than native conifer species. Although Nilsson et al. (2008) did not find differences in understory species composition between P. contorta and Pinus sylvestris stands, the former had more than three times the litter cover on the ground which can suppress the growth of lichen. P. contorta stands also tend to have a denser canopy providing a more shaded environment than native species (Elfving et al.

2001). New wood products can also be valued, such as stumps, causing important damages to the ground. The environmental effects of such practices are not known in the long run:

Near the coast here, stump harvesting has become really interesting. When you harvest the stumps, there’s only soil and stones left because you turn upside down the whole ground with all the root system. It’s a huge impact, maybe 70–80% of the ground vegetation turned upside down.

Jakob Nygård

102

Needles fall from the contorta trees, important quantities of needles, and they suppress all the living plants on the ground. If it happens that there is a small opening in the contorta forest, there can be a little patch of ground lichen maybe. And maybe a reindeer can find it. But if it’s far away in this forest, there will never come any grazing out of it. Reindeer will never find such small patches in dense forest like that.

Lars-Evert Nutti

Finally, an important driver of change since the establishment of forest industry is fire suppression, a natural key disturbance in the functioning of boreal ecosystems. Uncontrolled forest fires were common in northern Sweden until fire suppression was initiated in the early 20th century. Although fire greatly decreases the ground lichen cover in the short term, the effects in the long run depend on the forest type. Burning of lichen-rich ground benefits shrubs and has thus significant negative effects on reindeer herding. On the other hand, burning of shrub-type forests with a thick humus layer and relatively little lichen cover benefits lichens (Kivinen et al. 2010; Sandström et al. 2016). There is strong evidence that lichen-rich pine heaths originate from repeated forest fires, because the accumulation of organic material and resultant water retention in the absence of fire disturbance results in vascular plants out-competing lichens (Zackrisson 1977). Therefore at wider temporal and spatial scale, the abundance of lichen-rich pine-forests depends on the management of fire regime which today consists of protecting the value of productive forests from fire hazards; hence the fire suppression.

7.4.2. Climate change

In the past, I remember even though I’m not that old, we talked about the All Saints thaw. If you managed the All Saints thaw, the winter was safe; there was only one thaw we were anxious about. There was also the New Year thaw, but usually there was more snow then, so it was not as sensitive. Nowadays, this All Saints thaw comes several times: so to say, there are thaws before and after.

Jakob Nygård

Reindeer husbandry is highly dependent on snow conditions for reindeer to access lichen under the snow cover (see previous sections). Concerning the effects of climate change on snow conditions (snow cover duration, snow water equivalent, ice formation) there is a wide consensus about more adverse conditions for reindeer winter grazing today and in the future (Moen 2008;

Callaghan et al. 2011). Winter grazing conditions are expected to be unstable including ice formation and more frequent thaw whether (SOU 2007). Since the beginning of the 21st century, Sami herders have already experienced extreme variability of winter grazing, both within and between years. Unpublished data collected between 2004 and 2011 by Roturier and Roué, showed the spatial variation in the patterns of land use by winter-groups due to extreme thaw-freezing events that become more frequent. As a consequence, Sami herders have to find other lands to adapt to bad grazing conditions:

If we go back in time, about 10 years ago, we were grazing every year since the 1980s in the area we used to be down here in the forest. But the last years, we had to find other solutions to complete the winter grazing. We’ve had to be in the mountain tundra during one winter, we’ve had to feed our reindeer another one, we’ve had to be further west another one, we’ve tried to be in the natural reserve in the mountain forest, expecting that our reindeer would survive two years in a raw, and this year we will try to graze down here again. So out of 6 winters, we have used our natural grazing are only once. So the climate has changed drastically the last 10 years and I would say the last five years.

Lars-Evert Nutti

I think it [climate change] went very fast during the last 5–7 years, it goes worse and worse every year. It’s a tricky situation: how are we going to solve this in the future, and continue… There are plenty of adversities tackling reindeer husbandry and on top of it the grazing is bad, covered by ice due to rapid weather changes… and the decreasing arboreal lichen grazing, ground lichen grazing, soil preparations…

Jakob Nygård

The decrease in old-growth forest supporting arboreal lichens is a big loss for adaptation to climate change. Since local snow conditions vary to a large degree, depending on forest structure, ground vegetation, topography and micro-climate (Roturier & Roué 2009; Horstkotte & Roturier 2013), reindeer husbandry becomes increasingly dependent upon this spatial diversity and variety of land types to cope with changing snow conditions.

The snow depends on different factors, first of all the weather. But then it depends on the forest:

is it an old or a young forest? If the same amount of snow falls in the old and the young forests, then there’s maybe twice as much snow in the young forest, snow on the ground. Compared to the old forest where half of the snow remains in the trees. So if you have 50 cm of snow in the young forest, you have 25 cm in the old one. So it’s half of it and that means twice easier to dig the snow.

Some years... It’s the opposite I must say.

Lars-Evert Nutti

7.4.3. Cumulative impacts

While forestry and climate change can be easily identified as major sources of changes for reindeer husbandry, especially for winter grazing, there is a wide variety of drivers that affects Sami herders and their reindeer. The hydroelectric regulation of rivers has deeply impacted migration roads in and out from winter grazing lands. Other sources of land encroachments have contributed to the loss of grazing land. The predator population (lynx, wolf, bear, wolverine) is another source of worry that causes important loss of calves.

Unfortunately many drivers remain poorly identified and difficult to quantify. In this respect, the issue of snowmobile traffic is a good example. Tracks for snowmobiles are trailed but not always respected, especially during late winter and spring where snow leisure activity peaks. This has important consequences, disturbing reindeer a few weeks before calving and making tracks that contribute to spreading out the herds during a time period when herders try to keep them together before migrating to the calving lands.

There are many factors that impact reindeer husbandry. First forestry that has cut down our arboreal lichen forests for instance. Then we have a dense network of tracks that has been made by forestry to be more efficient. Connected to this network of tracks we have nowadays an increase in snowmobile traffic along these tracks. And because of new clear-cuts, you can see now the top of the hills. So today almost every snowmobile driver wants to go up and see what’s up there. But up there, there was a reindeer flock, maybe a big one, but the driver does not even think about it.

He just drives without a thought for reindeer or any other animal.

Lars-Evert Nutti

104