Agricultural expansion and population growth in northern Sweden was largely based on the use of wetlands well into the 20th century (Bylund, 1956: 283; Campbell, 1982 : 172; Hellström, 1917: 510). The most important type of wetland in this context was the mire, defined as a wetland dominated by peat-forming plant communities and with a yearly production of wood biomass below 1 m3/ha (Nilsson et al., 2019). In northernmost Sweden, mires currently cover more than 25% of the otherwise forest-dominated land surface below the alpine mountain range (Nilsson et al., 2019). Thanks to their large water-holding capacity, peat content, open surfaces, and distinctive plant communities, mires play a key role for water regulation (Karlsen et al., 2016), carbon sequestration (Nilsson et al., 2008), biodiversity (Saarimaa et al., 2019), and cultural history (Elveland, 1983).
In most of northern Sweden, the indigenous Sami have been present for a long time. Reindeer herding is a characteristic of both ancient and present Sami culture, and mires provide important grazing resources in summer and also open space for gathering reindeer (Blind et al., 2015; Warenberg, 1988). Mires are therefore core areas, especially for the practitioners of forest reindeer husbandry, who work all year round in the forest zone (Blind et al., 2015).
When it comes to the farming population, hay was historically the resource most commonly extracted from mires. Harvested fodder was, and still is, an absolute prerequisite for livestock’s survival during the long period of snow cover, which lasts about half the year in northern Sweden (Laudon and Ottosson Löfvenius, 2016). Whereas uncultivated hay meadows in upland areas were important fodder resources in other parts of Europe (Frödin, 1940), including neighboring parts of Norway (Reinton, 1955), most of the fodder gathered in northern Sweden was provided by natural wetland meadows, often mires (Frödin, 1952; Kardell, 2018). This was the situation until cultivated grasslands became common in the early 1900s (Elveland, 1983). The yearly production of graminoids on the acidic mires that are common in northern Sweden may amount to around 50 g/m2, whereas less acidic mires and those influenced by spring water may produce up to 250 g/m2 (Moen, 1976). In the coastal part of northern Sweden, practically all mires suitable for hay production were in use already in the beginning of the Middle Ages (Zackrisson, 1976a), and by the late 1800s, this was the case also in the interior (Bylund, 1956; Zackrisson, 1976b).
Because haymaking implies a substantial removal of biomass, it is believed to cause nutrient depletion (Frödin, 1952). In addition, the disturbance caused by mowing may induce a reduction in biomass (Moen, Lyngstad, and Øien, 2015). Therefore, it was common practice to harvest mire meadows only every second year (Frödin, 1952; Moen, Lyngstad, and Øien, 2015). By contrast, periodically flooded littoral meadows could be harvested every year. Inspired by this natural productivity boost, many farmers turned to artificial flooding of mires through either seasonal damming or installation of catchwork irrigation systems (Campbell, 1982 ; Elveland, 1979). In Västerbotten County in northern Sweden, at least 10,000 ha of irrigated meadows were reportedly created between 1834 and 1860 (Frödin, 1952: 171).
More radical measures were both widely discussed and attempted in Sweden during the 1700s and 1800s (Strandin Pers, 2012). The population was growing, more arable land was desperately needed, and reclamation of mires seemed to be the obvious solution (Arrhenius, 1884). Despite the skepticism of some authors, influential scholars asserted that virtually all mires were potentially arable, if only they were ditched and fertilized (Hellström, 1917: 204; Osvald, 1937: 233; Strandin Pers, 2012: 128–132). In northern Sweden, mires were considered to be particularly suitable for the production of animal fodder such as oat, turnips, and hay, enabling the keeping of even more livestock and thus the production of more manure to fertili