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Reindeer Go Hi-Tech Celebrating three decades of Pulse of the Planet, here's a program from our archives.For centuries, the people of Lapland have domesticated reindeer and followed their herd's annual migrations. But what happens to the migration when a city or industrial area gets in the way? I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.Ambience: ReindeerWe're listening to the sounds of reindeer being herded. Simma: In the winter when it's cold and when there's a lot of snow it's easier for the reindeers to live in big forests. The reindeers are dependent on the moss they find by digging holes in the snow and eating them. Paul Simma is a film director who grew up in a reindeer-herding family in Lapland. Simma: In the summer it's not very good for the reindeers in the forests because there are a lot of mosquitos. So the reindeers have always migrated up to the mountains to the Norwegian coast, because there is no mosquitos. The spring is much earlier there than in the forests, so the reindeers, you cannot hold them in the forest area even if you wanted. They just break away, it's instinct. So the Lapps are not driving the reindeers they are just following them trying to guide them into the best parts. What has happened for the last hundred years is that when the northern parts of Scandinavia was industrialized, the forest was cut down, towns has been built on reindeer pasturing grounds, the migration ways has been cut off. So that's the difficulty, how to pass a city, a dam, a road, a railroad. This has forced the reindeer herding to change, to start to use helicopters, motorcycles, cars, and now they are even migrating by putting reindeers into big trailers just to pass these towns and big open areas where the forest is cut away.This archival program is part of our thirtieth anniversary celebration. If you want hear more, check out our podcast.