Skärklackens Naturreservat

In this pine forest, which is up to 200 years old, there are traces of both charcoal burning and forest fires. In addition to the rare three-toed woodpecker, there are several unusual lichens and mosses.

Just west of this nature reserve is a rocky outcrop called Skärklacken. Below the rocky outcrop is a sheep farm with the same name, Skärklacken. In the pasture there are both remains of buildings and existing buildings left.

Initially, it is the eye-catching large pine trees that catch the visitor's eye, after which the spruce on the slope is also of respectable size. Older deadwood is sparse, while recently dead or dying trees are scattered throughout the area. Traces of fires can be found throughout the area in the form of fire sounds and charred stumps. The forest consists of both pure pine and pure spruce forest and in between a mixture of these. The age of the pine forest is up to about 200 years with several pines aged 150 years while the oldest spruces are about 130 years.

Around Bullerbäcken in the northeast at the outlet of the bog there is a swamp forest that has been affected by flooding. There is plenty of dead wood here, with elements of silver birch on plinths. In the far east of the bog there is a pine forest with scots pine in the ground layer. Out on the tree-covered bog there are large amounts of dry brushwood of smaller dimensions. Downstream of the reserve, trout and brook lamprey have been found.

Among the rare species found here are purple loosestrife, knotweed, woolly thistle and three-toed woodpecker. Ragwort is a low-growing orchid with a creeping rhizome, which allows it to form small mats of leaf rosettes. It has small inconspicuous greenish-white flowers, but is actually very beautiful if you look closely. The white hairy flowers are quite small and sit in a slightly spiral twisted inflorescence.