Wetlands in the forest include, for example, shallow lakes, swamps, marshes, mosses, fens and streams. This is one of the biotopes with the greatest variety of species and is really alive with activity. But generally speaking there is a shortage of wetlands in the Swedish forest landscape. More are needed. This is why we have our own wetland specialists and many interesting wetland projects and working partners.
Restoring wetlands is gratifying work. Wetland birds soon return when the former water flow conditions are recreated. It is also wonderful to witness a still lake or broadleaf marsh forest coming back to life after many years of stagnation.
We are working on this in cooperation with the Swedish Wetlands Fund and the Swedish Ornithological Society (SOF). 100 wetlands will be restored by 2010. This is the largest wetlands investment in forest landscapes in the world. Ten of these areas are extensive and the others relatively small. Gästern Lake in Kalmar was the first large wetland to be inaugurated, in 2008.
We are also restoring a number of wetland environments in Gallåsen state park in cooperation with the WWF. Gallåsen has been used as a reference project to show how we work with wetlands.