How Many Trees Are There in the Forest?

A century of data collection and experimentation, thousands of years of forestry

In Sweden, people have been living in and around the forest ever since the Ice Age relinquished its hold on the land. The forest has been used for buildings, fuel, fodder, food, and craft materials. Many traces of these different uses can still be found in our trees, objects, buildings, and place names.

During the seventeenth, eighteenth, and especially nineteenth century, forest products accounted for much of the economy, including exports of pine tar for rot prevention and sawn lumber for construction projects all over Europe. Soon the need arose for learning more about the forest and managing it better—logging and clear-cutting left disturbing scars on the land. How can we grow enough trees to meet our needs? In 1923, three experimental forests were established, one of them outside of Vindeln in Västerbotten County. These made it possible to test various methods in far-sighted experiments with large areas of forest. Meanwhile, the National Forest Inventory was tasked with surveying all of the country’s forests. How healthy are our forests, and how many trees are there in each?

A hundred years later, they are still experimenting with and inventorying Sweden’s forests. The National Forest Inventory is now based in Umeå and is part of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), as is the Vindeln experimental forest. They have generated an enormous collection of data that it is possible (and important!) to analyze. Today their mission is much broader, with climate change and biodiversity being among the most urgent issues they study.

The exhibition How Many Trees Are There in the Forest? features new material—photographs, videos, and objects—that gives insight into the great wealth of knowledge that has been gathered from the forest around us over the last century. You’ll get a chance to experience the forest and its significance in the past, present, and future.

Get to know different tree species, feed a tree, hear what the people of Västerbotten have to say about the forest, and see a pine that’s almost ten thousand years old! The story is framed by forest scenes from the museum’s art collection. Never-before-seen works by Helge Linden will be on view along with paintings by Kalle Hedberg and Nils Skum and a fine series of pen and ink drawings by Kurt Sundberg, an artist from Fredrika.