The Emån basin is situated in the southeastern part of Sweden. The river runs into the Baltic Sea or, more exactly, into the Kalmar Straight, between the cities of Oskarshamn and Mönsterås. The catchment area is about 4500 km² and the river system, including the tributaries, is about 800 km in length. The main river is about 220 km from source to mouth. The Emån actually “begins” in two different areas. The south branch (the main river Emån) starts at Bodafors in Vetlanda Municipality, while the north branch (Solgenån) has its source east of Nässjö. The catchment area is sparsely populated, only 100.000 inhabitants live in the catchment area. There are about 950 lakes in the catchment, most of them are oligotrophic, but some are also mesotrophic.

The Emån basin is situated in Southeast Sweden.

The catchment of the Emån.

The first nomad people lived along the river over 800 years ago. The main River Emån, its streams and tributaries have been the foundation of human life, settlement and food supply. In the Middle Ages the Emån was used as a power source. Water saw-mills, flour-mills, bone-meal mills and other facilities were built, but did not discharge any environmentally hazardous material. Industrial expansion is to blame for breaking the trend of man’s negative impact on water quality. In the 19th century Sweden began to industrialise. Since then, countless factories have been founded along the Emån, having an adverse effect on the water qualtiy. Various industrial activities have influenced the Emån: the forest industry, impregnation works, pulp and paper industry, mining, foundries, smelting plants, metal manufacturing, glassworks, chemical engeneering plants, dye-works and gasworks.

Countless flour-mills, swamills, tanneries and other enterprises have obtained power or water  from the Emån. The old water sawmill al Kvillfors in Fliseryd was in operation well into  the 20th century.

Fishing has always meant a great deal to people living close to the Emån. Before 1890 the salmon could migrate the river freely all the way up to Ädelfors near Vetlanda. But in 1892, the largest water drawdown project of all time was started in the Emån. The aim was to lower and clear the most shallow sections of the river. Even Kvillen, a branch of the Emån near Fliseryd, was cleared of stones as part of the project. And the first hydroelectric power stations were also erected. But the power stations of the early 20th century made it virtually impossible for salmon, eel and other migrating fish species to travel upstream.

However work is now underway to recreate the migration routes. At the end of 2000, an artificial migration route for salmon and trout was inaugurated adjacent to the Finsjö power stations, north of Fliseryd. Now the fish can pass the high power station dams and continue upstream. The large water system is full of such migration obstacles. A large survey of the entire Emån has been carried out and after that a Fish Conservation Plan was made. This plan is an inventory of the 250 migration obstacles, located along the various branches of the Emån. Out of these 250, only 24 are natural obstacles, the rest are man made. Some of these are still in use today, including 41 power stations. One of the main proposals of the Fish Conservation Plan 2000 is that old, disused facilities that constitute migration obstacles should be removed to help salmon, trout, roach and eel migrate more easily upstream. In other cases, it may be better to build special fish routes. The goal is to eventually allow salmon and trout to return to their original spawning grounds.

Helping the salmon migrate upstream.

The Emån is one of the most valuable rivers in south Sweden. In the lower section of the main Emån lives the provincial fish of Småland – the legendary sheat-fish, which is currenly threatened by extinction in Europe. The river is considred to be the most important watercourse in northern Europe for this large freshwater fish. The Emån has many other exclusive inhabitants that contribute to the water system’s high natural values. Rare fish such as the stone loach, asp, chub and spined loach live in some parts of the river. The river system, including the lakes, has a high bio-diversity with 32 fish species. Most interesting are the sea trout, char and the protected wels. Perch, pike and roach  dominate the list of the 32 species of freshwater fish. There are also pearl mussels and crayfish in some of the Emån’s tributaries.

The River Em.	The pearl mussel lives in serveral of the Emån’s tributaries.

The River is nothern Europe’s most important watercourse for the endangered sheat-fish.	The kingfisher.

In the upper sections of the Emån’s catchment area lives the otter, but it is so rare that it has been added to the Swedish Threatened Species Unit’s list of endangered animal species. It is only in the highlands, especially around Slogenån, that the otter lives in reasonable numbers in Småland. But due to improved water quality, the otter population has started to increase along the river. Also a rich birdlife can be found, because of the shifting character of the river as it passes through many different nature types.

The terrestrial fauna and flora is also extremely interesting with several eastern, and extremely continental, beetle species. The traditional agricultural landscape has a very rich pasture flora. There are also several old grown forests with a rich lichen and moss flora. Swamp forests have developed along the rivers and near lakes. The high nature values have lead to the Emån being classified as an area of national interest for nature conservation.

Landuse in the Emån basin.