Åskakskölen, Naturreservat

Åskakskölen is a varied wetland complex consisting mainly of large expanses of different types of marsh, as well as wooded marsh islands and marginal forests.
Åskakskölen is located on a flat plateau with dead ice terrain and the area is dominated by a large bog complex. The wetlands are included in the Marsh Protection Plan for Sweden and large parts have protection class 1. The wetlands consist of, among other things, sloping bogs, slightly arched pine bogs, sloping fens and large topogenous fens and string blanket bogs.

Many of the forest stands within the reserve are natural forests with high natural values, including bog islands with older pine forests with dead wood, both in the form of dry trees and coarse dry grains, flames and fire stumps as the area has historically burned on several occasions. But there are also moist and spruce-dominated forests, with late-growing trees, a high proportion of dead wood and long forest continuity, which provides conditions for a stable and humid microclimate, something that many red-listed cryptogams need to survive.

Animals and plants

The bog is home to several demanding bird species designated in the EU Birds Directive (SPA), capercaillie, crane, golden plover, greenfinch, barn owl, barn owl, three-toed woodpecker and grouse.

The Ruffed Grouse, which lives exclusively in pine forests and prefers coarse sunlit pine forests of trees with a lot of heartwood, which is created by fire, has been found in the area.

Inside the stands, where the sun and wind cannot dry them out, there are some difficult to find and moisture-demanding species such as brown-powdered needle lichen, violet-grey thorn lichen, hull lichen, old spruce toadflax and wood borer. They all belong to the group of species whose long-term occurrence in Sweden is uncertain due to forestry. The red-listed species wolf lichen can be found on the moor. Wolf lichen is an intense yellow-green shrub lichen that can grow up to 15 centimeters long and is found on old dry pine wood on the edges of the bog. A total of 46 signal species have been found in the area in the organism groups fungi, lichens, insects, mosses and vascular plants.