Bäcks, Naturreservat

Directly east of the Norrbys cultural reserve in Väte, a museum farm from the mid-20th century, is Bäcks nature reserve. The area consists of old high-stemmed coniferous mixed forest, a forest that attracts mushroom and berry picking. Inside the forest there is also an ancient castle, "Binge Castle".

The forest shows clear signs of having been used as a "peasant forest" for a long time. Until the 19th century, it was common for the forest close to farms on Gotland to be managed by picking and felling. This means that selected trees were felled manually and used for building materials and firewood, for example. In this way, some pine trees were saved and thus reached an age of 150-200 years. Such old pine trees are home to a variety of lichens, ticks, insects and nesting birds. To preserve the natural values of the forest, it will continue to be managed by the landowner, who will harvest with care. This opens up the forest so that the sun can look down on the ground and provide good conditions for some soil fungi and plants. The northern part of the reserve is grazed, and especially here the forest is easily accessible.

If you can tear your eyes away from the high treetops and look down at the ground, you'll see plenty of blueberry bushes, which means that in some years there are also blueberries here. If you look a little closer, you can also find wood anemones, wood violets and the orchid woodruff. The old and thick pine trees are home to the sparrowhawk, which is an important species for forest birds. They usually peck out new holes every year and leave the old nest holes for other forest-nesting birds such as wood pigeons and barn owls.