Grå-Larsknipen, Naturreservat

Here, nature is protected so that it can grow and die at its own pace. The terrain is rugged and steep, with large boulders scattered here and there. There are no marked trails here. But if you make it here anyway, you’ll have the chance to see and experience an old, nearly untouched coniferous forest with a wonderful wilderness feel. Photo: Sebastian Kirppu, Dalarna County Administrative Board

Wanted: dead tree!

In the forest, silver pines stand proudly with their twisted, gray trunks. These once-vigorous pines have been dead for many years, but they still stand with their roots in the ground. Even though they’re dead, they’re home to insects, wood-decay fungi, and lichens. Without these dead trees, the insects would have nowhere to lay their eggs. The wood-decay fungi and lichens would have no place to grow and thrive. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find dead trees in the forest, and this shortage of habitat is causing great harm to many species.

Fire That Has Shaped the Landscape

Fire has raged here many times. And on the tree trunks, you can see fire scars—marks left by the flames. Some pine trees are so old that they bear multiple fire scars from fires of the past. One sign that a forest has burned is the presence of deciduous trees growing mixed in with the conifers. This is because deciduous trees are the first to grow back. They are the quickest to reclaim the forest after the fire has killed the spruce trees and the ground becomes lighter. The death of the spruce trees also gives the pines a chance to grow really large and old. Up on Grå-Larsknipen Mountain, you can spot the so-called “grandmother pines.” These strong, ancient pines have thick, armored bark adorning their rugged trunks. If you see a “grandmother’s pine,” stop to give it a hug! And if you’re lucky, you might even hear the tree’s story—what it has seen and heard over the course of its several hundred years of life.

The Forest’s Inhabitants

There are many endangered species that call this forest home. On spruce and pine trees, you might spot traces left by the three-toed woodpecker. It pecks in a circular pattern around the tree’s trunk, making several circles in a row. In early spring, the bird pecks in this way to drink the tree’s sap. Down in the damp moss grows the small orchid known as the knee-root. Here, it lives in symbiosis with fungi. Together, they form a mycorrhiza, which in Greek means “fungus root.” This is because the fungus’s root threads penetrate the orchid’s roots. It might sound like a bad thing, but the fact is that they need each other to survive. The knee-root orchid gets water and minerals from the fungus, while the fungus, in turn, gets nutrients from the knee-root orchid. Both need this interaction to survive.