Bästeträsk, Naturreservat

Bästeträsk with its surrounding woodlands, alpine meadows and mires has natural values that are in many respects unique, even from an international perspective, and the reserve may be included in Gotland's next national park. Here you can experience a distinctive Gotland wilderness with both sea eagles and golden eagles.
Bästeträsk Nature Reserve is one of Gotland's largest nature reserves and includes the 665-hectare lake Bästeträsk (Gotland's largest lake!), as well as just over 800 hectares of surrounding forest, bogs, alvar fields and shingle beaches. In the south-westernmost part of the reserve there is also a small area of deciduous forest and meadowland - Hässleänget.

Despite its size, Bästeträsk is relatively shallow: the maximum depth is only 4.5 meters, and most of the lake is considerably shallower. The lake is largely devoid of higher water vegetation, but stands of reeds and sedges occur in the southwestern part of the lake and north of Stor- and Lillholmen. Large parts of the central parts of the lake have a bottom vegetation of crane algae. Of the fish, there are pike, roach, rudd, tench, perch, whitefish and stonefish (the only freshwater populations on Gotland). Almost the entire lake is surrounded by a beach barricade consisting of an ice-shifted, 0.5-1 meter high embankment of partly blocky gravel. In the central part of the lake are the islands Storholmen and Lillholmen, both of which are largely covered with low-growing pine forest.

Hässleänget, which has an area of about 10 hectares, has the character of deciduous forest dominated by oak and ash. The whole area was previously meadowland, and many of the ash trees show signs of having been felled in the past. In parts of the area there is plenty of hazel. Nowadays, about 4 hectares of the meadow are again managed in the traditional way. In the north, the forest is damp and partly has the character of a swamp forest. Several rare species of lichens and wood fungi grow on the ash and oak trees, and the moist deciduous forest is probably home to the country's richest population of the greater agate snail, a rare and lime-demanding land snail.