Report from the Klingervatt Forest
This summer we visited our most recently acquired old-growth forest: Klingervattskogen. A mountainous old spruce forest of 117 ha located north of Östersund in Krokum municipality, Jämtland. In the middle of summer, it lies there so beautiful, quiet and still. Only a gentle rain fell on summer-warm cheeks and a warbler and a kingfisher were heard chirping and flying between the spruce tops.
In the Klingervatt Forest, the near-threatened twining lichen hangs everywhere, the ground is covered with blueberry brushwood and in some places white moss. We found many exciting species. Among other things, we saw two protected orchids: spiderwort and spotted knapweed. On the spruce flats, i.e. the old dead spruce trunks lying on the ground, we also found the endangered spruce knotweed.
In the forest, you have to be prepared to walk up the heights over logs and stones. Sometimes it goes down towards marshes, bogs and old mountain pastures. Everywhere you see really old spruces with gray hanging branches covered with twine lichen. The average age of the spruces is 160 years. Old crooked birches with cracked bark, young birches and large flowering meadows bear witness to pastoral farming. The old Klingervatt sheds located here have a cultural-historical value and an importance for species that may be unique to the special ecosystem of old pastoral valleys. From here we had a fantastic view out towards Klingervattnet.
