humans have used forests for a wide range of resources up through the ages influencing forest structure and ecosystem functions the human transformation of nordic forests has been particularly strong in the lowlands as populations increased during the last years and in the interior and the north as modern industrial forestry developed from the end of the s since the s management of whole forest stands with clearcutting planting and intensive silviculture has been extensively applied and has been very successful in producing large amounts of harvestable timber while also increasing the growing stock substantially