Saturday 10/12: Iglekärr, Solliden and Skarnhålan in Ale municipality...
... is covered by four different acquisitions in connection with the 80 ha nature reserve Ekliden in the southwestern part of Risveden. Naturarvet signed a contract in 2012 with three different owners at Iglekärrs old-growth forest for 70 ha. The collection faltered and in 2014 external consultants were brought in to increase the collection. In June 2015, a new full-time manager was hired. By the end of the year, funding had been secured and the acquisition could be completed and became a nature reserve, which was inaugurated in August 2016 with the unveiling of a unique wilderness bench, carved from an oak trunk from the Gothenburg Botanical Garden by chainsaw artist Tommy Craggs.
Naturarvet expanded the area southwest of Iglekärr with the acquisition (actually 2 acquisitions of 13 ha) in 2017 of Solliden, where a real hotspot with mixed oak forest contributes strongly to the protection of a very threatened environment, a type of forest that resembles the primeval forest that existed here 5000 years ago. Solliden is as our name of the area means a sunny hill and in the middle of the hill stands an ancient savings bank oak that brings to mind a famous 3D movie.
In 2018, on Biodiversity Day, May 22, a contract was signed for 39 ha of Skarnhålan. On the same day, a fire started in Iglekärr that skilled firefighters were able to limit to 20 ha across the "border" between Iglekärr and Ekliden. Skarnhålan has everything from natural coniferous forest on the plateau to mixed oak forest on the slopes down to Svällebäck where the endangered river pearl mussel lives. Up on the plateau there is also the small lake Skarnhålan, which is bordered along its shores by agkärr, a Natura 2000 protected habitat.
Skarnhålan extended the contiguous protection of Skategårdsberget to the east to include a total of 209 ha of nature reserve now called Iglekärr and Ekliden. Skategårdsberget forms an important link between two areas with several contiguous nature reserves, 241 ha in the north and 796 ha in the south. The three hotspot areas with a large proportion of protected nature and several smaller biotope protections totaling 75 ha in between create a well-functioning green infrastructure that maintains the high nature values in this part of Risveden.