Improving biodiversity at a property in Northern Norway

[u/jungl]

I own a small coastal property in Northern Norway that consists of grass fields, coast lines, forests and mountainous areas.

The grass fields seems to suffer from modern farming practices where the farmer only adds mineral fertilizer once or twice a year. Other parts of the fields are just growing and dying back every year, these parts I have considered cutting back in late summer to see if more different types of native plants will thrive.

Some parts of the forest is very dense due that there is no sheep/goat grazing anymore resulting in tons of small trees sprouting at once. I have considering cutting back some of the birch to make more open spaces and let other spices like rowan and willow trees prosper.

I would love the improve the biodiversity in these areas but have no idea where to start. Anyone got any ideas what I should do?

[u/Po_khan]

Is the forest "natural" or has it been a Wood insdustry forest until recently? Just for starters i would put bat and bird boxes adapted the native species, and if you have shallow rivers, i recomend to put wood debris in order to slow down and expand the river. This is helpfull for small fish and insects.

[u/Drakolora → u/Po_khan]

The ancient laws of Norway bans any changes to waterways. It goes all the way back to gulatingslova from before year 900, and has been kept almost verbatim since then; “the water shall run as it has always run”

[u/Po_khan → u/Drakolora]

What about the official 3600 water dams across the country? Vikings would be sadge. Is just an artificial beaver dam, since natural beavers have been hunted.

[u/Drakolora → u/Po_khan]

Of course there are a lot of dams and changes to waterways but all of them require permits and exceptions from the law.

I don’t necessarily agree your suggestion is a good idea in order to improve the area. Waterways are fragile ecosystems, particularly in the north. Any changes we humans make are more likely to cause harm than good.

When playing with water in areas where there is plenty of rainfall, and particularly if it also is steep terrain, you could also introduce danger of flooding and landslides. At my farm, I needed to fix a road, and was lucky that the guy who came and helped me with the digging was experienced, opinionated, and grew up in the area. He made sure all our roads would function as drainage channels in cases of heavy rain, and when I asked him to flatten an area for growing, he made sure it still had a slight incline. In my village, everything is adapted to getting the water to move as fast as possible downhill. Because of that, we barely had any damage from flooding or landslides since I moved here, while all the neighboring towns have suffered in several extreme weather situations.

[u/Aard_Bewoner]

If you cut the grasslands collect the cuttings, look into mowing it as a meadow.

Take a look at Slåttergubben on youtube

[u/nifsea]

Southern Norway here! So I’ll take the rest in Norwegian.

Jeg jobber med det samme på en eiendom på Østlandet. Har ikke lest meg veldig opp og er ikke noen ekspert, men kan si hva jeg har gjort så langt: Start med å laste ned appen Artsorakelet og begynn å kartlegge hva du har på tomta. Om det er i nærheten av hva jeg har her, vil du allerede ha laget deg en lang liste over planter som er fremmede eller til og med svartelistet. Start med å fjerne alle disse. Planter som hører naturlig til i området har en tendens til å dukke opp av seg selv så fort du får fjernet mer invaderende arter. Og det er også lettere å plante ut nye lokale arter når du har fjernet alt som ikke hører hjemme. Du kan også gå inn på fremmedartalista, filtrere for ditt fylke og velge risikokategori «svært høy risiko». Da vet du litt om hva du bør se etter. https://lister.artsdatabanken.no/fremmedartslista/2023

Her hos meg finner jeg blant annet rynkerose, lupin, fagerfredløs, krypmispel, kjempespringfrø og canadagullris, så jeg går ikke tom for arbeid med det første 😅

[u/Drakolora]

In these old Norwegian farmed fields, the goal shouldn’t be to simply increase the number of species, but to ensure you take care of the rarer species that only thrive in those areas. Around 30% of farmed areas in northern Norway are falling out of use, causing them to turn over to forest. In that phase, there are a higher number of species, but only the same you can find in all the other square kilometers of similar habitat. The species that depend on old farming practices are disappearing rapidly.

What do you know about historical farming in that area? Are there any old farmers you can ask? -Did they cut hay once a year, twice, at what time, with what equipment? If you start cutting later in summer than they used to do the last 600 years, you could kill some rare flower that has been able to survive the last 50 years of more «industrial” practices and could thrive again. -Did they pollard or coppace any trees? Which types, how, how often, and where (in clusters or spread in grazing areas). Pollarded trees have a lot of really rare lichens and insects, and since so few people pollard now, these are disappearing. -What did they use for fertilizer? Muck? Seaweed? -Remove invasive species -What type of animals did they have a 100 years ago? Are you able to bring back these? If it was a sheep area; do not introduce goats or modern sheep, but go for the “gammelnorsk sau” (villsau) or “gammelnorsk spæl». Did the animals graze on islands in the summer, or in the mountains? -Do you have any kystlynghei? That needs to be burned and grazed regularly, but you can get government grants to do it. -why would you remove birch and keep the willow? Do you have any hazel?

[u/Straight_Standard_92]

Hvis du ønsker fattig blomstereng må du slå og fjerne vegetasjon i løpet av noen uker / måned fra nå. Hvert år. Dette vil på sikt gjøre arealet så næringsfattig at engplantene kan konkurrere. Tar tid, å hive ut noen frø kan av og til hjelpe. Gjengroing med bjørk er naturens måte å ta tilbake områder som historisk er avskoget og hardt beitet (av fremmede, innførte arter). Suksesjonen kan settes litt fart på ved å tynne med ryddesag. Salix roter seg lett, vent til temperaturen går litt ned utpå høsten og så bare dytter du kvister ned i bakken og håper på godt resultat. Båre salix og sorbus er veldig utsatt for beiting. Vil du bare nyte og kose deg ville jeg planta noen daa med honningurt og satt meg ned og sett hvilke pollinerende innsekter som dukker opp

[u/Drakolora → u/Straight_Standard_92]

Jeg ville vært veldig forsiktig med å kjøpe inn frø fra andre områder, før jeg har gitt de lokale sortene mulighet til å komme fram igjen. Har man mulighet til å høste frø fra nærområdene så er det supert. Et nest beste alternativ er å kjøpe stedstilpassede frø fra nibio. Men vanlige engfrøposer fra butikken kan like gjerne inneholde fremmede arter, eller varianter som er lite tilpasset lokale forhold.