2014 Skuleskogen, Sweden
Skuleskogen National Park was established in 1984 as Sweden’s 19th national park . Situated within the High Coast-Kvarken Archipelago World Heritage Site, the Skuleskogen National Park is like a physical geography textbook visualising how ice, land uplift and waves shape a landscape.
The red-coloured Nordingrå granite cliffs, the land-uplift coast and the coniferous forests constituting the borderland between north and south characterise the landscape. Nowhere else in the world has land been as depressed by an ice-sheet as here on the High Coast. When the ice melted at the end of the last ice age, the land began to rise out of the sea. This land uplift is still ongoing, at a rapid rate of almost one metre per one hundred years. In Skuleskogen, you will find one of Sweden's coastal region’s largest ancient forests. One of its rarities is the beard lichen (Usnea longissima). It is found draped on old spruces growing on north-facing slopes with high and even humidity. Half of the National Park consists of hills with flat boulders and sparse pine forest. Some trees are more than 500 years old and some bear scars from forest fires. The rare and large Flatheaded Pine Borer is one of the insects that enjoy this warm habitat. |