Skogreisinga på Vestlandet og framande bartre i Arboretet på Milde planta før 1970

Afforestation in Western Norway and exotic conifers in the Milde Arboretum planted before 1970. The authors document the history of forestry and tree planting at Milde (Bergen, Norway) before the establishment there of The Norwegian Arboretum in 1971. The article goes back to 1898, with the origin of ‘Det norske Skogselskap’ (the Norwegian Forestry Society), shortly before Norway’s independence from Sweden with its initial struggle to establish a viable forestry in the over grazed and depleted coastal heathlands. It covers important figures and organisations in and around Bergen, spanning from forest research to the recruiting of soldiers and children to plant trees, and the post-war contribution of ‘Landsforeningen Bygg Ditt Land’. The introduction of exotic species from North America, such as Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), is documented, along with the history of land management at Milde. Selected large trees of key species are measured and age-determined, revealing the tallest tree being a Sitka spruce of 45,0 m planted 1926, and the oldest trees being a native Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and an English oak (Quercus robur) of approx. 225–230 years of age. The earliest plantings of Sitka spruce and Norway spruce (Picea abies) from before 1947, and the plantings up to 1970 are mapped and described, adding European and Japanese larch (Larix decidua, L. kaempferi and their hybrid), silver fir (Abies alba), noble fir (A. procera), grand fir (A. magnifica), western red cedar (Thuja plicata), Serbian spruce (Picea omorika) and douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). The introduced trees are placed in context of the semi-natural landscape of native forests still found at Milde, particularly pine forest