What we do
The Romantics Reserve is a non-profit association dedicated to actively and practically working with the restoration of biologically depleted land, a method also known as rewilding. Forests are the land-based ecosystems' equivalent of the oceans' coral reefs. They are home to thousands upon thousands of species. However, through the establishment of monocultures, clear-cutting, and drainage of land, humans have had a profoundly negative impact on this great, green home. Protecting the small remnants of relatively untouched nature that still remain is of utmost importance, but unfortunately, it will not be enough. If we want to save the species that still cling to the fragmented landscape from extinction, we must also restore and rewild large parts of the human-impacted forest area. The good news is that this does not have to be as overwhelmingly difficult as one might think.
The Romantics Reserve has achieved very good results in a very short time.
Practical work
We have named our method “rewilding, re-greening, and re-beautifying.” These three categories actually flow into one another. It is difficult to see where one process ends and another begins. But dividing our holistic work into these three subgroups makes it easy to describe what we do.
Rewilding: This usually involves artificially recreating the structures in the forest that would otherwise only be caused by storms, floods, fires, and ice ages. Storms create trees with broken tops, floods create pools of water, fires provide temporary nutrients, and ice ages move rocks. By sawing, digging, burning, rolling, and hauling, we can mimic these natural disturbances.
Re-greening: Because of monocultures, there is a catastrophic shortage of deciduous trees, shrubs, and other smaller plants in most Swedish forests. Many species depend on species other than pine and spruce for their survival. That is why we have started to relocate deciduous trees, ferns, shrubs, and herbs from places where they are unwanted and into our monocultures. Since neither deciduous trees nor smaller plants thrive in depleted soil, we are also working on soil improvement.
Re-beautifying: What we humans find so beautiful in an old, untouched forest is often the same thing that also creates biodiversity. While it is still standing, a hollow tree serves as a natural birdhouse, and when it falls, it becomes a hibernaculum for everything from rodents to amphibians.
What we humans find beautiful is often the same thing that other species need to survive.
WildHeart
Beautification can also be about making the forest more attractive for humans. Since its inception, The Romantics' Reserve has been actively collaborating with artist Maria Westerberg, also known as WildHeart. Her stick- and driftwood art attracts thousands of visitors to our lands every year. Once here, they have a hard time not learning something about forests and biodiversity as well. This collaboration between our association and an artist makes us a unique player in the field of public education. A visit to The Romantics' Reserve is as much about mingling in a green gallery as it is an experience in the immense recouperating force of nature
Limes Norrlandicus
The Romantics' Reserve is located in western Vermland, Sweden, right on the border where the biology of Continental Europe meets that of Scandinavia. To the south of us are linden, hazel, oak, and beech. To the north of us are pine, spruce, willow, and birch. We exist on a line where two ecosystems meet, the so called Limes Norrlandicus. This in turn provides conditions for higher levels of biodiversity than is possible in most other places. With only around one percent of the total productive forest area under protection, our province of Vermland ranks among the lowest in Sweden when it comes to conservation. This makes The Romantics Reserve, with its special geographical location, all the more important. Our association is a unique pioneering initiative.
The Reserve
The Romantics' Reserve currently consists of an area of 100 acres, most of which is heavily impacted by human activity. This is where we carry out our work to rewild, re-green, and re-beautify the landscape. This area constitutes the Romantics' Reserve.
However, if you let your gaze wander over the map, you can see that, in addition to the 100 acres we have at our disposal, the landscape surrounding The Romantics' Reserve is dotted with a number of key biotopes, nature conservation agreements, and additional areas where forestry only takes place with careful selective logging methods. Large parts of these protected areas have been created as a result of efforts by people who are now associated with The Romantics' Reserve. The total area of these sites amounts to nearly 620 acres. One of our long-term goals is to continue to protect the few remaining old-growth forests in the surrounding area and to purchase more degraded land to rewild. If we were to dream big, we would like our initiative to spread, so that the maps of tomorrow show a string of protected and rewildered zones stretching along the entire Limes Norrlandicus. A green corridor from Oslo to Uppsala.
Support us
Under the “Donate” tab, you will find information on how you can support us financially.
Depending on time and resources, we are happy to accept volunteers. If you are interested in this, please contact us. We do not exclude anyone, but we prioritize young people with weltschmertz and burning hearts.
DONATE
Background
The artist Maria ”WildHearts” work on the site predates The Romantics' Reserve. The association was formed as a consequence of the immense hard work that she, her husband Johannes, and various volunteers have contributed through nearly thirty years of non-profit labor to turn the place into a green oasis.
Tens of thousands of visitors have come to wander through WildHeart’s sculpture forest. However, calling the area a ”forest” would have been a stretch. In reality,at this time it consisted of the unfortunately all-too-common spruce monocultures seen throughout our country. But during the unusually warm and dry years of 2018–2023, large parts of these plantations were attacked by the European spruce bark beetle, resulting in the death of hundreds of spruce trees. The monotony of the monoculture was broken, in a natural way.
Instead of following the usual practice in such situations—clear-cutting—Maria and Johannes chose to interpret it as nature making a clear and powerful statement: that something is out of balance, and that plantations are not real forests. Bark beetles are not a catastrophe; they are but a reminder of the real, man-made catastrophe. Right then and there, Maria and Johannes proclaimed the site 'a sanctuary for romantics' (The Romantics' Reserve), and decided to let it become an experimental field for practical rewilding and art. A few years later, now in collaboration with a young arborist, a radio producer, and a forest engineer, that the association was formally established. Since the beginning of The Romantics' Reserve, our work has primarily focused on rewilding, regreening, and rebeautifying the broken nature known as monocultures. We set our minds on recreating a more natural, yet visitor-friendly forest at record speed.
At the time of writing, December 2025, we have planted nearly 4,000 deciduous trees of varying ages and sizes. The smallest reach only a few inches above the soil, while the largest exceed 35 feet. When it comes to moving the largest trees, with root balls weighing over 200 pounds, we've used volunteers – manpower – in order to avoid heavy machinery and the soil damage this often cause. Alder, linden, rowan, maple, elm, ash, birch, willow, oak, wild apple, bird cherry, hazel, beech, whitebeam, bird cherry, and buckthorn. Almost every tree native to Sweden now has a home here. With the exception of a few saplings received as gifts, all these trees originate from the local area. Most of them sprouted and grew in places where they were unwanted—ditches, meadows, etc.— and would have been cleared away if we hadn’t been there to dig them up. Beyond the fact that these trees did not come to us via the nursery industry, they also have the advantage of their genetics already being adapted to local conditions.
As far as possible, we have tried to preserve the dead trees created by the bark beetles. Dead wood, both standing and fallen, is a scarce resource in Swedish forests. The tree itself may be dead, but inside and on the surface of its decaying trunk, life thrives like never before: mosses, fungi, and insects find their homes there, and in them, birds and other insects find their food. Parts of The Romantics' Reserve are, however, a destination for visitors, and visitor safety is important to us. Therefore, we have found it necessary to fell or top some dead trees. No dead wood has left the area, however. It has either been left on the ground where it fell, reused in boardwalks, bridges, and artworks, or buried to increase the soil’s moisture retention and prevent carbon from reaching the atmosphere. Furthermore, some felled trees, along with all their branches and bark, have been turned into massive fungi and insect hotels.
As a sign that we chose the right path forward, we were able to spot the Great Grey Owl as well as the Three-toed and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on the grounds after only a year. The following year, we had confirmed nesting of the Three-toed Woodpecker, and the year after that, the Great Grey Owl. Since then, the number of species has increased year after year.
Everything that grows begins in the soil. We may think of the forest as its trees, but the real magic happens down in the dark humus where thousands of species of fungi and microorganisms live their secret lives. To increase soil moisture and accelerate the transition from needle plantation to deciduous-dominated mixed forest, we have inoculated the ground with moss-covered deciduous logs, ferns, and various herbs. This, combined with the tons of autumn leaves that we've also moved into the area, seems to have had the intended effect on these subterranean magicians.
In a naturally damp area, we've hand-dug a pond. Calla palusris, marsh cinquefoil, lilies, bulrushes, and water lilies have been planted. The result? Fresh drinking water for large mammals and countless birds. Frogs, toads, and dragonflies have already moved in—and in the summer of 2022, both the Great Crested and Smooth Newt appeared.
We have installed hundreds of birdhouses, insect hotels, small mammal shelters, and specially designed perches on high stumps for birds of prey and owls. The response from the surrounding wildlife has been extraordinary. Birds, insects, and mammals of all kinds have given their resounding approval. Their enthusiastic return has filled us with renewed hope—for the future and for the deeper purpose behind it all.
We are the rewildeners, the greenifyers
and the beautifiers.
With our radical romanticism, we are
the organic resistance to the technocratic ideas
about nature that our time adheers to.
We are nature, on the side of the animals
in all matters, always.
We are no heavyweight pessimists, in hostile opposition
to our opponents.
We are the indomitable optimists, with chlorophyll bloodstreams, confident that Man can be made anew,
into something that stands allied with everything
that is wild, free and green.
We neither can afford, nor have patience
with ideas of, a potential future paradise.
With our lives, we create a Here and a Now,
where our love is visible, and it's visible what we love. Seedling next to tree, bird next to frog, nut next to egg.
We are the greenifyers, the beautifiers the rewildeners,
not the masters, the rangers, the stewards.
It may not be a profession,
but a Great job.
/ Maria, Johannes, Victor