The forest is always like an
old, good friend that I know. For me, it feels like I'm a pupil
in the largest school in the world. All the subjects are here. I'm learning
things like form, shape, philosophy. And very much psychology and self-knowledge. I've had so much climate anxiety.
Actually since I was a little child. I was a naive, romantic, animal-loving girl. But I was schooled and educated into – – that this was naive and childish.
And that I should grow out of it. And start to look at inter-human
relationships as the path to happiness. And I think this brought on me
a depression when I was young. I was forced into something that was too narrow. It was already decided for me, the dreams. It had to do with romantic
relationships, maybe a house. Maybe travels. Maybe fulfilling
relationships on ... It's just so many woodpeckers.
Sorry, I'm distracted. In Sweden, if you're depressed, one of the
recipes is to go for walks in the forest. So I started to walk the forests.
And ... In my paths I found little funny sticks.
Because they lie everywhere. For me it was explosively nice to be – – alone, left out in the woods,
and without any teacher – – or therapist or anybody telling me
what to do, when and why to do it. I just picked up things,
and I still do it, after 25 years. They said: "Go out in the forest,
and then you come back." And I went out, but didn't return.
So the question is if I ever got well. But it doesn't matter because I feel well. Why do you call your notebooks "facebook"? Well, isn't facebook something like a
half-diary where you write down events? And friends? With pictures? So, it's the same.
I just don't smear the world with it. I keep it to myself.
Or to anyone who's actually here. And I remember much more
of what happened if I – – paint a little bit and let the
thought go out in the hand. And I think facebook is like a story
telling about your life somehow. So, this is it.
But I own this myself. I didn't give the rights away
of my pictures and my ideas. And someone asked me once:
"Do you have facebook?" And I thought: "No, I don't." Let's have one.
Now I can say: "Yes, I have facebook." "Are you on facebook?"
"Yes, I'm on my facebook every day." I just love your art – – but I guess we're here today
to talk about something else too. Could we start maybe with
a little bit of history? Like, the history of this forest. Well, my grandfather listened to
the advice from forest authorities. So he killed all leaf trees and planted
the fields with spruce, everywhere. And my mother's generation
has been able to profit from this. In a monetary manner. She clearcut and planted again
and thinned the forest. And now comes the bill. To my generation
and the younger ones. It's very fragile to insect attacks, so – – here, the forest has been
attacked by bark beetles. And they're slowly killing all the big spruce. The forest is starting to weaken and
become fragile because of the mono culture. I could hear big spruces,
one after one dying. It was like: "Pop, pop, pop." And everything turned green.
It was raining needles over me. And it was very dry. I was so scared.
It felt like everything is going to burn. Everything I love dies. They were supposed to live
long after I have died. And they all started to die before me. I started to talk with biologists
and they said: "Trees are dying. Not the forest." "This is the way the forest
shows it wants to live." "It creates a lot of dead wood
where new species can come." And it was like, the poet in me
couldn't really accept it. The nature scientist person in me accepted it. And I could see directly other species coming. But the poet in me wasn't satisfied.
It was happening too fast. I cried all the time. But I started
to move around leaf trees. That I found in weird places like ditches or – – where electricity wires go,
where they're anyway not going to live. And I started to just move them. This one needs to go in deep. - Are you planting a birch?
- No, it's a cherry tree. I want to take advantage
of the good soil there. After my 100th replanted tree
I had stopped crying. Because I was so tired, physically. After my 300th tree I discovered
that a squirrel was following me. Like he was doing some kind of research. Of a fool trying to rescue
something that is unrescuable. At my 800th tree I started to feel some kind of – – strength. And hope. I was eager to wake up in the morning. They all started to live and wanted to live. And it was really nice. I'm actually saving something. In this time, where the science is showing
things are so much worse than we thought – – this has turned out much better
than I thought and expected. Of all these almost 2200 trees now – – I've counted 17 that died. So I've made something really good,
without having a system. We can go out and measure
with our eyes and our logic. With our idea of knowledge. We could also, I would love
that it would come some – – people who have studied this.
With empiric data. It would be really great to see,
what have I done? Is it good or not? What happened here is that – – we had a major invasion of bark beetle.
And they killed all the trees here. And then we replaced those trees with this. So you have linden and rowan and – – alder and every ... ash. Even a wild apple tree. Hazel ... And we don't really know
what's happening here now. I mean, the forest is always a process.
We're always in the middle of a process. What's really interesting here is that – – you've left the dead wood.
The dead trees. In most forests they are removed,
to generate income. And then the result of the
disturbance will disappear. The disturbance will produce a
substrate for the further process. But if we remove this,
then it's not really – – a full scale function in
this disturbance anymore. I have a question. One disturbance
is the bark beetle, but then ... If we just left it there would be a natural
process with rowan, birch and aspen. But we've added another disturbance
and actively planted ... So it's not actually a natural
process here anymore either. What do you think about this disturbance? I think you've introduced species that might've
needed some additional years to come here. Like the linden. It's not always the goal to reduce human
impact. It's a matter of what we do. That's interesting. We need this kind of experiment. And it's not like you're bringing
exotic species here. If you would do that I would
be much more sceptical. A lot of foresters are looking for new tree species. "What other specie could we introduce
here to handle this situation?" I think that's the most dangerous way to go. THAT WAY - Maybe this isn't your most advanced piece.
- But it's very good. So let's go that way. Ok, see you guys. - This one was ...
- It was as high as me. - You were a bit negative ...
- A tad higher than this one. You said: "It's not going to
grow Mia, it's difficult." Two and a half years ago. The same bark beetle disaster
happened to the land owner next to us. He answered it the conventional way.
We're going to go there and look. And I think you don't have to be a
biologist or ecologist to see that – – it's quite a different nature. When we're standing here we
can really feel the difference. The whole micro climate is different. Compared to your forest, this is more
or less only one ecological niche. There are no trees.
There's very little shelter wood. We have a completely different vegetation now. We have a pioneer vegetation.
Like grass and herbs. Your forest is still a forest. As you have a visiting center here – – people might come here for your art. But maybe they leave with the forest. THESE THOUGHTS ARE SO BIG, SO WILD
AND THEY JUST KEEP GROWING I felt many times desperation and panic. What are we going to do? This problem
is so much bigger than what I can handle. But can you abandon someone – – who helped you when you
were down and broken? Now this is broken, and I'm not anymore. I think, in so many positions we find ourselves – – in educations or different professions – – and especially in the ownership of forests – – where there's a story and
we have to follow the narrative – – and we can't be kind.
It's awful for us. I think it's one of the reasons
why so many of us are depressed. Because we don't get space
and a place and a job – – where we can actually be kind. I think it's one of the nice things with humans. We're really kind if we get the chance. Thank you so much for watching this film. My name is Mattias and
I'm the director of the film – – and the founder of Campfire Stories. Campfire Stories is a
community supported project. That means the only way we
can keep making films is – – through the support from
the people who watch the films. So please consider joining us
as a Patreon supporter. Thank you so much.
