Forest fires in Sweden
by Lewis, 23 July, 2018, 1 comments
Sweden has a lot of forest and woodland. In fact, roughly half of the country is covered by trees. Travelling back some two thousand years, the trees were mainly broadleaved but then oaks and alders began to decline. However, by the mid twentieth century Spruces and Pines were dominant. This was mainly due to the process of forestry management, producing wood for fuel, charcoal [used in iron smelting], potash, tar and timber for building.
However, the recent record breaking temperatures and drought across many parts of Europe have put large areas of Swedish forest at risk. Rainfall in Sweden this year has been dramatically down - approximately a seventh of the normal amount. One has to look back to the C19th century to find similarly low figures. Read more...