© Daniel Gustafson
The Gimpeln nature reserve protects valuable old spruce forests. Here you can experience a forest that has long been untouched. This is very unusual in this part of the county, which is characterized by intensive forestry and mining.
Spruce ages
Spruce is the most common tree species in the reserve and many of the trees are very old. This can be seen in the lower part of the trunks, which are colored pink by the unusual old spruce bark beetle.
Old pines
There is plenty of dead, decaying wood in the forest. Dry trees and fallen tree trunks look like forest litter, but dead wood is valuable for many fungi, lichens, mosses and insects. Rare species such as the woolly tick and the wood tick grow on coarse, decaying spruce logs. On soft hardwood, fungi and lichen experts can find rarities such as yellow needle and foxtail.
Dead wood
The oldest pines in the area are up to 200 years old. The pines are coarse and tall. The oldest pines have smooth, silver-gray bark. If you look carefully up the trunk, you can spot the unusual pine tick. If you see a pine tick, you know that the pine it is growing on is over 150 years old.
Cedar forest
If you spot cheesy droppings under a tree, you've found one of the capercaillie's favorite trees. It likes to sit perched in a treetop and eat. Blueberries are its favorite food in summer, but in winter it eats almost only pine needles.
Swamp forests and brook troughs
High and consistent humidity favors the reserve's moisture-loving mosses and lichens. One of them is the rare limestone moss. It grows on boulders and mudflats along the stream that runs along the mountainside to the west. There is also an abundance of goldenrod along the stream. Rutlung moss, coral lichen and twine lichen are other species that live in the wet forests of the reserve.
Accessibility
At the moment, the road to the nature reserve's parking lot is not accessible by car. Even the marked path is difficult to access due to many fallen trees.
Facts
Municipality: Askersund
Year formed: 2014
Area: 50 hectares
Landowner: Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
Reserve creator: County Administrative Board
Manager: County Administrative Board
Directions
The nature reserve Gimpeln is located 6 km southwest of Askersund. From the roundabout at Askersund's country church (road 50), turn onto road 205 and drive 4.5 km. Then turn left at the road sign for "Broängen 1" (before you reach the turnoff to Tived). After about 750 m turn left again onto a smaller road. Drive straight ahead past the farm. The road is small and may be slightly overgrown. The reserve's parking lot is located after about 600 m, just after the desert village of Lerdalen. From there it is about 50 meters to the reserve boundary. A hiking trail goes into and through the reserve.
Regulations
In the nature reserve it is forbidden to:
- drill, hack, blast, dig, carve, paint or otherwise
- damage rocks, the earth's surface, stones or to move or remove stones,
- drive a motorized vehicle other than on a public road
- cut down, remove or otherwise damage living or dead standing or fallen trees and bushes
- make fires other than with wood brought in or provided by the manager
- picking, collecting or digging up plants including mosses, lichens or fungi
- ride a bicycle or horse
- deliberately disturbing wildlife other than what normally occurs when hunting,
- without the permission of the county administrative board, put up a permanent board, sign, poster or comparable device or to cut tracks,
- without the county administrative board's permission, use the area for organized competitions or exercises, camp activities or similar.
But it is allowed to:
- pick berries, edible mushrooms and flowers for your own use, but not protected or red-listed species.
