Over the next few days I will show photos of my attempt to see the ancient beech trees on the Bettlachstock mountain. My first image shows a picturesque group of trees close to the trailhead north of the village of Bettlach at a height of about 500 m above sea level.
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The Bettlachstock mountain (1’298 m) in the Cantone of Solothurn (Switzerland) with its ancient beech forest has been a nature reserve for more than 35 years. Natural development is left largely undisturbed there. The main tree species is Fagus sylvatica, spread over more than hundred hectares. The oldest trees go back more than 200 years. The mean slope of the mountainsides, where the trees grow is 66%. Thus, it is technically neither easy nor unperilous to look at them from close up.
Since July 2021 the Bettlachstock beech forest is an UNESCO World Heritage Site: “The property represents an outstanding example of relatively undisturbed, complex temperate forests and exhibits a wide spectrum of comprehensive ecological patterns and processes of pure and mixed stands of European beech across a variety of environmental conditions. The forest reserve constitutes a valuable genetic reserve, not only for the beech tree but also for many associated animal and plant species that depend on these habitats.”