Gäddtjärn, Naturreservat

In the Gäddtjärn nature reserve, the forest in the mountainous landscape has developed freely for a long time. There are blocky cliffs with fine vertical walls, hollows with swamp forest but also older deciduous trees. The old coniferous forest offers plenty of good habitats for sensitive and endangered animals and plants.

Clad spruces

The nature reserve is located in hilly terrain at Hoas berg and Gäddtjärn. The forest here was felled in the late 1800s. Individual trees were then cut down while many trees were left behind, a method commonly referred to as "picking" or "felling". As a result, there are spruces and pines here that are over 200 years old. The south-western part of the reserve was previously used as wooded meadowland, where hay was harvested for cattle. In places, the trees are richly draped with long hanging lichens. The slow-growing lichens thrive in old forests.

Friends of the aspen

On the eastern slope of the reserve there are many large aspens. The aspens provide a habitat for all kinds of insects, fungi, mosses and lichens. Many of these species are picky and only thrive in older aspen environments. As the really large aspens have become fewer and fewer, many of these species have found it difficult to survive. On several of the aspens in the reserve you will find the lung lichen, one of our largest and most impressive leaf lichens. This rare lichen can be found in older forests of aspen and willow. Another species that depends on aspen is the rare large aspen tick. The mycelium (network of threads that grow into the tree like roots) of the aspen tick causes the tree to rot so that the trunk eventually becomes hollow.

Birds of the forest

The many hollow trees in the forest are ideal nesting trees for woodpeckers and other burrowing animals. You may see traces of the rare three-toed woodpecker in the form of ringed pine or spruce trunks. In their hunt for the sap of the trees, they peck small holes that run like rings around the trunk, often in dense rows one below the other.

Accessibility

Gäddtjärn belongs to level 1 in the county administrative board's leveling of the county's nature reserves, which means that the reserve has a wilderness character and lacks outdoor recreation facilities.