or Vorrmyran (Figure 2e), and at some point before 1963 connecting ditches were dug along the narrow fields that were created (Figure 2f). In 1919, a ditch plan to prevent frost damage was made for another mire, Hukladumyran. Although the plan was realized, it was never followed by cultivation. The analysis of the aerial photos from 1963 shows that these ditching projects, together with the abovementioned reclamation of Klockarmoren, led to the creation of about 9 ha of arable land from 6 ha of mire meadows and 3 ha of unused mires, corresponding to about 3% of the total mire area.
The mires chosen for reclamation were among the more productive ones, especially the ones that were ultimately cultivated. Klockarmoren had probably already been concerned by some measures before 1880, when the meadows of the site were classified as best grades, 1–1.2. The largest well-known ditching project, Vorrmyran, drained mire meadows with grades 1.5–8 and formerly unused mires with grades 10–20. At Koverberget, the reclamation transformed two formerly unused mires of grade 12. By contrast, the ditching of Hukladumyran, which never lead to cultivation, drained mire meadows with grades 4–16 and unused mires with grades 50–100.
The analysis of the DTM shows that there are currently almost 39 km of ditches in the study area, road ditches excluded. About 40%, or about 15 km, run through the total mire area as defined from the 1880 map. Most of the ditches affecting mires, about two thirds, were dug to enhance wood production, whereas the rest were for agricultural purposes.
Most ditches dug for agriculture are well documented and can be dated almost to the year, but we have not been able to date the ditches dug for silvicultural reasons. Forestry maps of Sandviks Ångsågs AB from the region generally show both ditches and the year they were dug, but on the maps covering Abborrtjärn, drawn in 1941, ditches are absent. We therefore assume that forest ditching in the study area generally took place after that year.
The buffer analysis showed that about 106 ha of the total mire area, or 39%, is located within 60 m from ditches and therefore likely to be affected by past drainage activity. A larger proportion of productive mires, that is, mires with good grades, have been affected by ditches than less productive mires, mires with poor grades (Figure 6).
The 273 ha that made up the total mire area in 1880 had become reduced to 161 ha (59%) by 2013. The remainder is currently 106 ha forest (39%), 3.4 ha arable land (1.2%) and 2.7 ha water (1%) (Figure 3).
The various types of past management that we identified and quantified have affected essentially all of the ecosystem services provided by mires in the study area. The mires were used almost exclusively for haymaking starting in the late 1700s and ultimately reaching 22% in the late 1800s, after which they were abandoned and mostly left to slowly and passively recover. Thereafter, the effects of water regulation dominated—partly through dams that flooded some areas to enhance hay production and later extend the timber-floating season, but mostly through the use of drainage ditches to promote agriculture and later forest growth. Approximately 40% of the mires in our study area have permanently been converted to forest or arable land through drainage over the time frame of our study. These 300 years of management have legacy effects for the region’s biodiversity, water regulation, and carbon (C) sequestration (Elveland, 1983; Karlsen et al., 2016; Saarimaa et al., 2019).
At least two aspects of mire management have likely had mostly positive impacts on biodiversity: haymaking and seasonal flooding via damming. First, previous research has revealed that haymaking simplified the habitat structure, as all tussocks and shrubs were obstacles for scythes and the mires were therefore usually cleaned before the first harvest, after which the continual use kept the surface even (Zackrisson, 1976a). Trampling during harvest compacted the mire’s surface and generated wetter surface conditions, which favored the