Ulvdrågen, Naturreservat

The Ulvdrågen nature reserve is located in a hilly, highland landscape, which forms a barren mosaic of marshes, swamp forest and pine forest. It is home to a significant number of unusual and demanding species.

Natural forest

Kviddtjärnsåsen extends in a north-south direction. On the eastern side there is a small crevice valley that further south turns into the bog valley Ulvdrågen. Most of the forest in the nature reserve is around 170 years old. The oldest trees were already growing in the 1600s, perhaps earlier. There are plenty of top-broken trees in the area. On the heights, snow often falls in early fall. The early wet snow freezes in the spruce tops, which are built up into increasingly heavy snow caps after each snowfall. Eventually the tops break off, but new shoots soon appear, which is why these spruces often have several tops next to each other.

Back to earth

Old-growth coniferous forests have plenty of dead wood. The decaying wood, together with the damp local climate, means that there are a large number of rare wood fungi in the reserve. Several species of ticks are found on pine and spruce trunks. The flesh tick, for example, requires constant high humidity and decaying logs and tree parts to grow on. Scented bark is a fungus that breaks down the wood of the tree, and can have fruiting bodies up to meters long. It occurs in uneven-aged forests that have been left untouched for a long time and have top-breaking damage, as is the case here.

Migratory bird

The small lake Långtjärnen is the nesting place of the little grebe. It is typical for little grebes to nest in a small lake that lacks fish, while they seek food in the larger lakes nearby.

Colossal kites and crofting life

Until the first half of the 20th century, charcoal was made in kilns around the forests of Ulvdrågen. Near Store Flosjön are the remains of the Kassfallet croft. The foundations of the house and the small terraced field patches are still visible today. In the southern part of the area was the Berga croft, whose small patches of fields and meadows are now overgrown with forest.

Accessibility

Ulvdrågen belongs to level 1 in the County Administrative Board's leveling of the county's nature reserves, which means that the reserve has a wilderness character and lacks outdoor recreation facilities.

Read more about the leveling and management of protected nature