nd high groundwater tables (Joosten, Tanneberger, and Moen, 2017). According to data from the Swedish Wetland Survey, which covered all mires larger than 50 ha, the mires of the study area are mostly topogenous or soligenous fens, although northern bogs also make up a significant part (CAB Västerbotten, unpublished data). These are also the most common mire types in the subregion as a whole (Gunnarsson and Löfroth, 2014).
From a cultural perspective, the study area belongs to the inner part of the coastland of Västerbotten County. Before farmers settled, it is probable that indigenous Sami controlled the area and possibly also used the mires for grazing reindeer, but next to nothing is known of this early history (Norstedt and Laudon, 2019). The first scattered farming settlements were established along the Vindel River during the Middle Ages. The population then remained relatively stable until the mid-1700s, when a number of new settlements were created in the forest lands farther from the river (Bunte, Borgegård, and Gaunitz, 1982). The village in the focus of our study, Abborrtjärn, was one of these new settlements, established in 1778. Until then, the study area had been part of the zone of interest of the neighboring medieval village Degerfors (nowadays known as Vindeln) (Bunte, Borgegård, and Gaunitz, 1982; Egerbladh, 1972). Although agriculture remained the foundation of the region’s economy well into the 1900s, forestry became more and more important during the late 1800s, and the building of the railroad around 1890 stimulated various kinds of trade (Bunte, Borgegård, and Gaunitz, 1982). Today, only 9% of the population of Vindeln Municipality work in agriculture or forestry, whereas most people are in the manufacturing industry or in the public sector (Företagarna, 2020).
We have consulted a number of sources: 1) all historical maps we could find from both Abborrtjärn and surrounding villages, dating from the early 1700s to the 1920s (Lantmäteriet, 2020a); 2) ditching maps and plans, created for state-subsidized ditching projects in the late 1800s and early 1900s; 3) reports from the Swedish Roads and Waters Agency, which were published as a part of Sweden’s Official Statistics around the turn of the 20th century and provide information on the reclamation of mires performed each year (Väg- och vattenbyggnadsstyrelsen, 1872–1910); 4) forestry maps from 1941 that contained information on forestry measures, including ditches, established by the forest company Sandviks Ångsågs AB and covering about half of the study area, which had been acquired by the company; 5) the archives of the Umeå Timber Floating Association (Umeå flottningsförening), which contain information on dams and other installations; 6) aerial photos from 1963 and 2013; and finally 7) a LiDAR derived DTM from 2015.
The single most important source was the enclosure (sw. ‘laga skifte’) map of Abborrtjärn from 1880 (Figure 2c), which we used to define the study area. It was drawn to equitably share the village common land among the owners, and therefore shows the entire area divided into a large number of polygons which were classified as mire, meadow, forest, and so on. Each polygon was marked on the map and described in a table containing information on area and a grade representing value, by us interpreted as productivity. The grading was relative, with the most valuable land classified as grade 1 and less valuable land as proportionally higher numbers up to 100.
As for older conditions, the first map that gives any substantial information is the geometrical and geographic map of Degerfors from 1702, where land use is sketched and the amount of hay produced on different kinds of land is noted. The study area is included in the geographical part of the map, which gives an overview of the area around the village but does not include detailed measurements of the study area. Then follows the delineation map of Degerfors from 1785 (Figure 2a), drawn to establish the borders between Crown land and village land, but also showing fields, natural meadows,