Pine stumps on the hill 'Skavdalsfjellet' throw light on the forest history of Bergen. Aage Paus describes his long-standing research on the vegetation history of the mountains around Bergen, including how he discovered sub-fossil pine stumps in peat bogs above today's tree line on a remote hill near Bergen. The stumps were radio-carbon dated and turned out to be from 4200 to 6200 years old. He surveys available literature finding little comparable data from the Bergen area on past forests at higher elevations, and discusses why forests disappeared above the current tree line.