Sounds like Norway: the aural experiences of outdoor life and biodiversity

What sounds describe Norwegian nature for people, and what sounds are expected (or unexpected) for recreating in nature? Do people generally think about sounds at all while in nature, or even plan their trips according to the sounds they wish to hear or escape from? These are a few of the questions we began exploring this summer in Rondane and Femundsmarka national parks. We studied both what people percieved and what actual sounds exist in these parks using wildlife sound recorders. We had two objectives for the project's pilot year: the first was to map the quality of the environment (and sounds within them). The second objective was to test if we can realistically combine human's perspectives of sounds with measured sounds for long term monitoring of the change in the quality of national park environments. What we found in our pilot year was suprising. People expect to hear birdsong, other wildlife sounds, water and wind. They do not expect to hear human-made sounds. People described how nature sounds are vital for stress recovery and a primary motivation to take trips into nature. Yet, people do not plan their trips according to their sound expectations. They still travel to "busy" places in national parks, where they hear human sounds. This is something we will explore further in the coming two years: how many people take natural sounds for granted in nature, that natural quiet comes automatically as soon as one leaves the city and enters the forest or fell? Another suprising finding was how important the types of sounds people heard were for their subjective assessment of the visual beauty of the national park landscape. People we asked the same kinds of rating questions for each location we stopped them to take a survey - nearby to the location we measured nature sounds with our recorders. If people answered visual beauty questions at locations with more boat traffic sounds, footstep or talking sounds, or aircraft sounds, the visual beauty assessments were poorer compared to the same locations at different times of day with different sounds (less human sounds, more birdsong). We continue to explore this angle related to self-assessments of health and stress recovery in nature. When we asked people what three sounds remind them of nautre, their ideal of hiking in Nordic nature, people named birdsong (84%), wind (90%), and water (78%). In some locations, these sounds were not perceptible due to other sounds (e.g. traffic sounds floating up a valley). When asked how unexpected sounds interfere with their nature experience, generally people accepted that noise events are accute, whereas nature sounds one can accumulate throughout the day. However, a final interesting finding from this trial year was the sounds we recorded in the national parks. We set up a recording location every 2 kilometers, generally following a popular trail (set back 70 meters from the centerline of the trail) in the parks that take visitors from the "developed" entrance area to the experience of the fell. Our aim is to calculate the acoustic quality of each location by using metrics used in biology that describe the biodiversity, acoustic complexity and ratio of human-made sounds to nautral sounds. This process is ongoing as we have over 1000 hours of acoustic data to manually code, then automate, and cross-check. We have manually coded many wader and migratory birds in Femundsmarka, and preliminary findings show an average noise free interval of 1 hour during the day at the most "wild" locations, compared to a noise free interval average of 32 minutes at the "entrance" areas. In Rondane, the average noise free interval during the day was 1 minute at the "entrace area," but the fell landscapes were also not noise free: the ratio here was 25 minutes of natural quiet compared to 35 minutes of human-made sounds, primarily aircraft noise. The quietest places in Rondane, by contrast, were in the forest locations. Here the aircraft noise was less perceptable to both people and the recorders, due to the sounds of wind through the trees. In the following years of the project, we will continue to work with national park managers to monitor the quality of the sound environment in the parks, what species we identify there and how much human-made sounds are prevelent and mask the sounds of nature throughout the year. From June to Sept 2025 we will again ask people to rate sounds and report health, as well as their perspectives regarding the importance of preserving natural sound experiences by limiting noise-incursions in Norway's national parks.

Many of us experience some surprise when we step off a beaten trail and into a wooded dell. Suddenly, we feel a bit closer to nature: not because we have finally arrived, but because we finally hear. There has been an emphasis in research and conservation policy about the visual features of landscape. Yet, we hear place as much as we see it. The weaving of sounds and perception within place is called the soundscape. Natural soundscapes (areas mostly free of undesirable anthropogenic sounds, i.e. noise) provision human wellbeing and influence positive behavior. Whereas, noise in nature severely degrades experiences connected to outdoor life (i.e.'friluftsliv') and impacts natural values including wildlife. In Norway 2.1 million (40%) are exposed to outdoor noise exceeding 55dBA - a level known to drive adverse health effects- and has serious implications for effective conservation of biodiversity and diverse restorative experiences in national parks. Thus, parks have an increasing importance to harbor natural sounds and areas free of noise. Sounds like Norway is a ground-breaking and co-produced research effort to document and assess natural soundscapes and to deliberate with stakeholders a strategy to effectively manage natural soundscapes as ecosystem services in Norway. SLN will result in understanding what sounds underpin outdoor life, charting the compositions of soundscapes in places intended to support pristine natural experiences, and provide data on problem areas where noise nuisance is apparent. We expect to find that in-tact natural soundscapes in Norway, as has been shown in other contexts, promote human wellbeing and species' flourishing. We hypothesize that when people have access to natural quietude, wellbeing improves as does experience and connection to nature. Natural soundscapes are central to outdoor life, to restoring health, to supporting biodiversity, and-through education and participation in research about sounds-to inspiring stewardship.