Gulliksberget, Naturreservat

Gulliksberget Nature Reserve is one of the county's best examples of a natural pine forest characterized by fire. Here you can imagine what a forest might have looked like in the mid-19th century when most forests were primeval forests. Mighty pines can be seen, the largest pine measuring more than 75 centimeters in diameter. There are no paths here, so you can roam freely in the forest. The forests and plants offer great nature experiences.

The reserve covers 38 hectares of natural forest between the mountains Gulliksberget and Lindsjöallmänningen, about 15 kilometers northwest of Hassela.

Fire-affected pine forest

The forest in the reserve is one of the county's best examples of fire-affected natural pine forest. There are 350-year-old pines, marked by the fires that have ravaged the area. Most of the older pines bear traces of these fires in the form of fire marks on the trunks.

The forest also contains the skeletons of the trees that died in the last fire, in the form of tall dead trees. Some of the trees have fallen over and become overgrown with mosses and lichens. If you look really closely, preferably with a magnifying glass, you can find the endangered dwarf goblet lichen. It is recognized by its fruiting body resembling a small wallflower, about 2-8 millimetres high.

Moist spruce forest

In the depression between the mountains there is a small dense and moist spruce forest where there are very few traces of man. There are spruce trees here that are 300 years old, which is a very old age for a spruce. These moist areas probably did not burn during the last fire and therefore the spruces survived.

Dead trees - important food

Many of the older spruces have died because they are old. They are now lying around and are an important food source for many insects and fungi. During inventories, several endangered wood ticks have been found on these lying dead trees.