Erik-Hanstjärn, Naturreservat

Erik-Hanstjärn is located southeast of Ågsjön, a little over the east of Svärdsjö. Here, a rolling landscape spreads out with a mosaic of wetlands, forests and streams.

The northern half of the nature reserve consists mostly of wetlands. There you will also find the pond that has given the area its name. South of the pond there is a larger forest area with pine-dominated forests on small blocky moraine shrubs with wet gaps between them. Most pine trees are between 90-150 years old, but there are older trees from previous generations. There are plenty of snags (standing dead trees) and older flames (lying dead trees). The old dead wood usually carries traces from previous forest fires.

In some of the low-lying, flat areas, it is instead the pine that dominates. Around the small stream, which flows into the reserve from the east, there is a sparse swamp forest of spruce and birch. In other humid parts there are pine forests. In the west, there is a lot of pine forest that differs markedly from the other parts. The forest grows on ice-river sediments and is surrounded by open wetlands. The ground is flat and easy to walk across. The pine trees are old, up to 200 years, but the forest gives a much more clean impression than the rest of the reserve.

In the northwest corner of the reserve is the cool, wooded Ollesudden. It is cut off from the bulk of the reserve of land and a lesser coziness.