Fulufjället National Park is a national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 in central Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. Its total area is 385 km², located entirely within Älvdalen Municipality

Älvdalen Municipality

Älvdalen Municipality is a municipality in Dalarna County in central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Älvdalen....

 in the province of Dalarna

Dalarna

', English exonym: Dalecarlia, is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. Another English language form established in literature is the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia exist in the United States....

. It is named after the mountain Fulufjället, 1,044 meters high.

It is one of Sweden's most recent, inaugurated in September 2002 by King Carl XVI Gustaf, followed by a few thousand spectators.

The park has become one of the initial PAN Parks

PAN Parks

PAN Parks works to protect Europe's wilderness, the continent's most undisturbed areas of nature.PAN Parks, the only European-wide organisation focusing on the protection of wilderness areas, applies an approach combining wilderness protection and sustainable tourism development.The organisation...

, an international project with the object to combine preservation with tourism. (Official site)

The geography is dominated by lichen

Lichen

Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...

, bare mountains, and valley

Valley

In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

s with dense ancient forest. The heaths of brush, grass and lichens are unique in the Scandinavian mountain range, a result of the absence of grazing

Grazing

Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...

 reindeer

Reindeer

The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...

s.

The park is a notable location for several species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of birds. The bold Siberian Jay

Siberian Jay

The Siberian Jay Perisoreus infaustus, is a jay found in north Eurasia. The species has a wide range and a large global population . It is one of three members of the genus Perisoreus, the others being the Sichuan Jay, P...

 is the park's symbol. Notable sights include Sweden's largest waterfall

Waterfall

A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...

, Njupeskär

Njupeskär

Njupeskär is a waterfall in the river Njupån in Fulufjället National Park, Sweden. With a total height of about 93 meters, it is the highest waterfall in Sweden....

, with a total height of 93 meters, and a free fall of 70. The park is also the home of "Old Tjikko

Old Tjikko

Old Tjikko is a 9,550 year old Norway Spruce tree, located on Fulufjället Mountain of Dalarna province in Sweden. Old Tjikko is the world's oldest living individual clonal tree, however, there are many examples of much older clonal colonies , such as "Pando", estimated to be over 80,000 years...

", one of the world's oldest trees.

External links

• Fulufjället National Park from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
  Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
  The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is a Swedish government agency responsible for proposing and implementing environmental policies...
  
  
• Fulufjället Description from PAN Parks Includes a location map.