Report from the polar circle

[luzula]

I'm back from the forest survey! Some photos and stories below...


Here is our camp, perfect in every way: a lake nearby to get water and to swim in, and to have a breeze that blows away the mosquitoes and midges, a shelter with a wood stove, a table, and nice flat ground for tents.


A dramatic sunset view over that lake.


regshoe: this is what an old spruce tree looks like in its natural environment!


The exciting red-listed species Chaenotheca gracilienta, which mostly grows at the base of spruce trees in humid environments. Those stalks are about 3 mm high.


We call these mushrooms 'goliatmusseron', though in Japan they are called 'matsutake' and are considered a delicacy. Apparently you can fly them to Japan and sell them for huge sums of money?


Dinner cooking on the wood stove, as well as some matsutake frying. I thought it was quite delicious!

We did the survey in collaboration with a Sami reindeer herding village. The Swedish state is clear-cutting forests that the Sami need for reindeer foraging and which moreover have very high conservation value. So it's natural that the environmental movement should join forces with the Sami on this issue. According to the forest certification FSC, the Sami need to consent to all cutting in their areas, but, well, I think you can all imagine what the 'consent' process looks like (threats to manage younger forest in ways which are detrimental to the reindeer, unless the state can cut old-growth forests). It's absolutely enraging. Well, let's see if we can get some media attention together...

Comments

[ride_4ever]

Thank you kindly for sharing the wonderful photos and the reportage.

Fight against the clear-cutting!

[luzula]

Thanks, glad you liked! : ) I'll do my best.

[isis]

How very cool, what a great way to contribute and have an interesting outdoors experience at the same time. I hope the Sami prevail.

[luzula]

Exactly! It's nice when you can both have a good outdoors experience and also contribute. : )

[ljm]

Wow! Everything looks so beautiful!

[luzula]

It is very beautiful! Well, the clearcuts are not, but I didn't photograph those. : )

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you so much for sharing the beauty and knowledge of your trip with us! If letter-writing about the clear-cutting would help, please let me know, or if the Sami and/or an environment group have fundraising needs?

[luzula]

Glad you enjoyed. : ) I'll let you know if there's anything that would be helpful!

[seascribble]

Why are nation states all so utterly terrible all the time. D: I am glad you are doing important work and also holy cow it's beautiful there. Did you skinny dip in the lake, as is your wont?

[luzula]

Yeah. Like, I shouldn't have been surprised, but somehow I still was.

Yes! Obviously there was skinnydipping, not only by me but by all the other participants.

[lyr]

Good luck in the fight against clear-cutting!

[luzula]

Thank you! : )

[chestnut_pod]

Oh, wonderful photos! Your dinner looks delicious; what good luck for a forager. Thank you for sharing :)

Best of luck with your media attention -- what a shame!

[luzula]

Thanks! Actually multiple people told me that my cooking and my food planning for the week was delicious, so that's nice.

[scintilla10]

These photos are amazing, and so interesting to hear a bit about this important work.

[luzula]

Thanks, I'm glad it was interesting! : )

[mergatrude]

Lovely photos. :) I wish you luck with your attention-raising!

[luzula]

Thanks, on both counts! : )

[sovay]

Well, let's see if we can get some media attention together...

Strength to your arm.

(Thank you for the lake and the Chaenotheca gracilienta.)

[luzula]

Thanks! : )

You have to look at a lot of tree bases before you find the rare lichens…

[hyarrowen]

That all looks fabulously beautiful. But I'm enraged to learn that the Swedish government is as dickish as the Australian when it comes to clear-felling old-growth forests, and to the detriment of first peoples. We don't deserve this planet.

[luzula]

Resource extraction by the state, or by companies, is ugly in a lot of places. : (

But I'm glad you like the photos!

[genarti]

How very cool! Except for the part about clear-cutting forests and strongarming the Sami, which is awful and enraging; best of luck for the media attention to be attracted and to make the difference.

I love the pictures! Especially the juxtaposition of that glorious sweeping sunset vista and then the close-up of the tiny Chaenotheca gracilienta stalks.

[luzula]

Thanks, we’ll do what we can! Which obviously is limited by us doing this in our free time, while companies and hostile state authorities have money and employees. : (

Glad you liked the photos! I'm partial to these tiny beautiful lichens. : )

[regshoe]

Aww, thank you for sharing these. It looks like an idyllic place, and that lake is absolutely gorgeous! As is the lichen—so tiny and so delicately, intricately beautiful; 'gracilienta' is a very fitting name :D And wow, that spruce tree is also very beautiful and makes an amazing contrast to the ones in the Scottish plantations—just goes to show, I suppose.

And that sounds like a very good and encouraging bit of collaboration between the conservationists and the Sami, although it's a horrific situation. I hope you all succeed!

[luzula]

Glad you liked the photos! Yes, it really makes an amazing difference to see the spruce in its native environment, and growing old as it should be, instead of cut down early.

And that sounds like a very good and encouraging bit of collaboration between the conservationists and the Sami, although it's a horrific situation. I hope you all succeed!
Thanks! There's a lot of work involved in it after you come home, and not just when you're out in the forest, which is part of why I'm so busy now...

[nnozomi]

Thank you for the lovely pictures! The lake is spectacular. Also good to hear about the Sami forest issue which I had not known about at all.
wait, so matsutake are "goliath mushrooms" in Swedish...? (You can get them in the supermarket at the right time of year, but they are definitely considered more of a delicacy than most mushrooms.)

[luzula]

Glad you liked the photos!

Yes, that's right, Goliath mushrooms... Although actually musseron is a specific type of mushroom, not a word for all mushrooms. I have heard of people selling them for large sums of money to Japan, but that sounds strange, if they are available in supermarkets there for a reasonable sum.

[nnozomi]

but that sounds strange, if they are available in supermarkets there for a reasonable sum.
I think they're one of the things that run from "available in supermarkets if you want to pay a bit extra" to "super fancy gourmet," so your Swedish ones are probably the latter. (Like, you can get a little plastic container of melon for 200 yen, but you can also buy a gift melon for something like 6000 yen, I don't remember; there's a range.)
Sorry to grab onto this unimportant detail :)

[sanguinity]

Oh, that looks like a lovely trip! (Yay, a breeze to chase off the mosquitoes!)

Best of luck to your conservation efforts! I'm always pleased to see environmentalists partnering with the indigenous caretakers of the land, and I wish your partnership much success!

[luzula]

Thanks! : ) I enjoyed it up there, now just to find the time to do the follow-up work, sigh...