Bölarp, Naturreservat

Bölarp consists of open heather moorland. The area is grazed by cattle that help to keep the land open. The very rare needle gorse also grows here. There are no marked paths in the reserve, but it is quite easy to get around on the heather.

The reserve is one of the few places in Sweden where the very rare needle gorse grows. To preserve the needle-leaved gorse and the other heather species, management is required in the form of grazing, clearing and burning. Heather is burned approximately every eight years. Burning is carried out mainly to rejuvenate the heather and prevent it from smothering other vegetation.

Many herbs thrive here

The heather heath is home to herbs such as haymaking grass, cat's foot and grasses such as sedge and knotweed. In the parts of the heath where the soil is a little wetter, we also find maidenhair fern and night violet. All these plants are dependent on burning and grazing.

Long tradition of burning

Today, Bölarp is surrounded by forest, but in the past the whole area was a vast heathland. Burning of the heath was then a very important part of heathland management. The main purpose of burning was to establish grass vegetation for a few years and to rejuvenate the heather and thus improve grazing. In the first few years after burning, the grasses leave their mark on the vegetation, but eventually the heather takes over from the grass. If no new burning takes place, after a while the heather becomes coarse and less palatable to grazing animals and eventually chokes out other vegetation.