Färsna nature reserve

Färsna gård is an area close to town, located on the northern outskirts of Norrtälje city. The area is of great importance for outdoor activities and is today an open visitor, information and education centre for various activities related to nature conservation, outdoor life, cultural heritage management, animal husbandry and small-scale agriculture and forestry. The area is of great importance as an excursion destination for the general public and schools. Within the area there is a section of the Roslagsleden trail and an electrically lit jogging path that is connected with the jogging path in Vigelsjö nature reserve west of Norrtälje city. There are plenty of smaller paths in the area. The pastures around Färsna are grazed and kept open by sheep, cattle, horses and goats. A part of the forest next to the farm is also grazed, which benefits a fine ground flora of both vascular plants and fungi. In several places there is a grazed flora that shows a long continuity of grazing and hay-making. In the boundary environments between forest and open land there are cultural traces in the form of clearance cairns and stone walls. The reserve is more species-rich than the surrounding landscape and contains habitats that promote species richness in several different organism groups. A long series of finds of red-listed species have been made. Among the species encountered in the reserve are for example the birds lesser spotted woodpecker, black woodpecker, Eurasian sparrowhawk, barn swallow; the insects relic longhorn beetle and black-haired bumblebee; great crested newt; a large number of fungi such as sharp spine fungus, pine tooth fungus, bread spine fungus, wrinkled bark fungus and woolly tooth fungus, as well as several bats. Source: Nature Conservation Register (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency) and OpenStreetMap.