The Ditching Time

Utdikningarnas tid

Källa: http://www.lyckebyan.org/

Kolla f.ö. de vackra bilderna som är utlagda på ovannämnda hemsidan http://www.lyckebyan.org/

Various regulations of watercourses were carried out over the years in order to optimise the use of water. They included for example the changes of the stream discharge, of the water level and of the ground water level. The regulation of the hydroelectric power has been the most important and most extensive type of regulation over the time. Today the regulations of lakes in order to secure water supply are quite common. The lakes Törn and Stora Havsjön are regulated for water supply within the Lyckeby River's waterways.

During the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century many of the lakes were lowered, emptied or dyked in order to gain or improve agricultural soil. Within the forestry sector ditching and protective draining of the land was carried out to increase the forestland production. The biggest encroachments were made mainly during the 1930's and 1940's, which was probably partly due to the fact that since 1927 it had been possible to get government subsidies and loans for forest draining and partly because forest draining was used during the 1930's crisis to counteract unemployment. Drainage Undertaking between Bånga dam and Fursjön Towards the end of the 1930's until the year 1945 the biggest single operation SEAGULL REPORT 3-2004 1 7 was performed near the Lyckeby River. 2230 ha of land was drained between Bånga dam and Fursjön.

The draining work started in 1939 with the purpose of gaining about 1500 ha of agricultural soil. The Lyckeby River was broadened and deepened and was ca 17 km long, out of this 5 km consisted of lake sediments and 6 km2 of lake surface. Lakes Fursjön, Bockabosjön, Flakesjön, Gubbasjön/Södersjön and Hallasjön were affected by the project. Moreover a side ditch of 67 km was made within the scope of the project. If you would like to find out more about it there is a book called "Lyckebys utdikning i 50-årigt perspektiv" /"The Drainage of the Lyckeby River from 50 Years' Retrospective View"/.

från en pdf-fil om Lyckeby river

Water Colour Water in the Lyckeby River is often brownish, like the colour of weak tea. This is due to the fact that the dissolved salts, organic material and other dissolved or suspended matter occur in the water. The supply of organic material from woodlands and marshlands is of great significance for the concentration of organic material in the Lyckeby's water. The big sewage treatment plants contribute to the local water quality as well. Since the water testing started in the water treatment plant in Lyckeby at the beginning of the 1940's the colour has grown. Also the tests carried out by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency within the framework of the Programme for Monitoring of Environmental Quality and the recipient monitoring programme (since 1988) indicate the increase in colour. In other river systems similar trends have been recorded. The reason for this increase is not quite clear. Most probably it is a result of a combination of different factors like for example changes in deposition (acidification), climatic reasons (temperature, precipitation), change in land use (coniferous forests instead of deciduous forests and arable land), ditching and draining/lowering of wetlands and lake levels. In lakes, where the water flow is slower the organic material, particles and nutrients stop and sink down to the bottom (sedimentation). Lakes function therefore as natural filters. In the Lyckeby River's main furrow six lakes "disappeared" during the 1940's when people tried to obtain more arable land (see also "The Ditching Time"). It is hard to assess what influence this could have on the colour, however if we had more lakes today the water colour perhaps would not be as high as it is. The Results of the 2002 Recipient Monitoring Programme The water colour in the Lyckeby River and its tributary streams is very high. All the sampling stations show values over 100 mg Pt/l (=Platinum per litre), which is classified as high water colour (class 5). The highest rates of water colour of nearly 300 mg Pt/l were recorded above Löften (54) and in the brook from Långasjö (56).

Hackorna som skulle användas. Minns särskilt flohackan och den vanliga hackan. Det skiljde endast på bladets utseende. Medan den vanliga hackan såg ut som mest vilken potatishacka som helst fastän måhända lite större och tyngre, så var flohackan lite besynnerlig, fyrkantig. Flohackans blad var sådant att man med lite fantasi kunde tänka sig att med den skulle man raka bort material mer än att hacka. Det innebar förstås att rötter och småsten måste man först få bort med insats av den vanliga vinkelhackan.
Jag antar, men vet inte säkert, att dessa verktyg kunde införskaffas med understöd av något allmänt bidrag. Det var ett nationellt intresse med syfte att utvidga den odlingsbara marken i fosterlandet.

Har inte någon bild än på flohackan. Ska skaffa til sommaren i ngn Hembygdsgård eller kanske på Skansen... :)