Sami Resource Utilization and Site Selection: Historical Harvesting of Inner Bark in Northern Sweden

Native Sami people have lived for thousands of years in northern Fennoscandia, subsisting on reindeer herding, hunting, fishing and gathering of wild plants. Harvesting inner bark from Scots pine (Pinus Sylvestris L.) was a common practice and traces of this resource use are still evident in old forests. In this study we analyzed trees with bark-peelings in a nature reserve in northernmost Sweden to assess the magnitude and spatiotemporal patterns of inner-bark harvesting. We found that the same inner-bark harvest locale was used repeatedly, in nearly every decade from the late 16th to the late 19th century and that harvest levels varied greatly over time. The harvest levels we observed were surprisingly low, in comparison to levels suggested in other studies, and indicate that inner-bark was used as a supplementary health food during early spring when game meat was naturally lean, rather than being used as bulk food year-round.