Storhälla naturreservat

The name Storhälla comes from a rock outcrop next to the lake. It got its shape from being worn down by the ice sheet about 10,000 years ago. There is a high water mark carved on the rock in 1916 when the water level was high above normal. See if you can find it! Then sit down and think about all the people in times before ours, who may have sat in the same place and contemplated life.

The nature reserve consists of spruce and pine forests. There are swampy spruce forests in the south and blocky coniferous forests in the north with both spruce and pine. There are a lot of dead, lying spruce trees, known as spruce logs, where you can see rose tick, wool tick and wrinkled skin on the underside of the logs. These woodland fungi are rare in today's forest landscape because there is a shortage of dead wood. Other uncommon natural forest species found in the reserve are old spruce lichen, spruce tick, pine tick and twig lichen.

There is a small sandy beach to the east of the large hill where traces have been found that indicate that this was a settlement long ago. There are also traces of agriculture in recent times; cleared cultivation areas, cairns and a dilapidated barn. On these overgrown fields there are large aspens with lung lichen.

Parts of the reserve can be difficult to access (wet or blocky) so it is easiest to walk on the hiking trails.