Stockholm

THOUSANDS OF SWEDISH trees have moved to Russia, according to a new scientific survey.

Pining For Russia, which is sponsored by the European Union, says that it originally placed tracking devices on one hundred thousand trees across Scandanavia in 1991, to record the growth patterns of trees below the Arctic Circle.

“These little beacons were there just to record growth,” says Forest Birch, a project leader. “You can imagine our reaction when a few years ago one of the trees we had tagged in Sweden actually turned up in Russia. I don’t mean that it was cut down and shipped east, or that somehow its pollen made it across the Baltic or Finland, no, this entire tree actually moved. Then another one turned up, and another and another. It kept happening until eventually thousands of them had moved. Remarkable.”

Scientists believe that the trees are moving because Sweden is no longer a friendly environment in which to grow. “Sweden has changed so much over the years, it just might be affecting their trees,” says Birch.

The consequences of the migration could be catastrophic, the scientist insists.

“We’ve always known that trees could move within their fixed position,” says Birch, “but his kind of migration is something new. Quite how they do it is still a mystery. And if the Swedes are doing it, who else is? And are they all moving to Russia? Imagine if the entire tree population of the western world upped and headed for Russia? Terrifying.”