Ryttersfjället, Naturreservat

A natural forest area located on a dramatic east-facing mountain slope between a marshy and lake-rich elevation in the west and the north-south cultivated valley around Rinnan in the east.
Stand ages are 100-130 years and older, with varying amounts of older trees. The eastern two-thirds of the area is assessed as a value core. The higher-lying western part of this core consists of rocky ground or ground with a thin layer of moraine, where the forest is pine-dominated, about 140 years old, with an eastward increasing element of older, sparsely branched trees.

Animals and plants

Among other things, mild dropwort fungus, traces of three-toed woodpecker and traces of blue jays on pine were noted here. A couple of drops with the presence of sulfuric ash indicate that the bedrock or moraine in some places contains basic substances (limestone effect). In the east-facing slope, the forest becomes more lush and changes in the lower parts to grand-dominated forest with elements of deciduous trees, including aspen groups and an abundant aspen layer in the easternmost parts.

A stream trough with old coarse spruce forest runs from the north down the slope to the southeast. In the stream trough with its moist atmosphere, the old spruce bark grows several meters up on the spruce trunks and the spruce flats are home to several endangered species of cryptogams, noted are wood bustard moss, forest bustard moss and the wood-living fungus wool tick. In the far east, the mountainside slopes down to a wet bog, Kullemossen.