Vårdsätra naturpark

Vårdsätra Nature Park is one of Sweden's oldest nature reserves and perhaps also one of the most secretive. Here, nature is allowed to live its own life without human interference. The entire forest is an experimental area for scientific studies and is therefore closed to the public. The best way to experience the reserve is from the path that runs between Skarholmen and Ekolsnäs, on the border between the reserve and Lake Mälaren.

The reserve was established as early as 1909 on the initiative of Professor Rutger Sernander. At the time, there was an old pasture here, and Sernander wanted to see what would happen to such open nature if it were allowed to develop freely. Since then, the land has been left untouched without grazing or thinning. It turns out that some form of management, mowing or grazing, is needed to prevent a meadow from growing back into a forest.

Today, most of Vårdsätra Nature Park is a very dense broadleaf forest with several giant oaks and old giant elms. Near Vårdsätra farm, for example, stands the large "beach oak" whose age has been estimated at 500-600 years. Trees that fall over are allowed to remain. Therefore, there is dead wood in all stages of decomposition that is colonized by lichens, mosses, fungi and all kinds of insects that need rotten wood in their habitat. A large number of interesting insects and a whole orchestra of bird species also thrive among the trees and shrubs.

In summer, the forest is home to, among others, nightingales, barn owls, warblers, garden warblers, blackcaps, green warblers and rosefinches. If you want to hear their spring concert, you can enjoy it from the path that runs along the reserve along the old highway.

Between Skarholmen and Ekolnsnäs there is an accessible promenade from which you can see into the nature reserve. It is easily accessible from the parking lot.

Administrator: County Administrative Board of Uppsala County