Pieljekaise

Pieljekaise National Park was established on 24 May 1909 in the municipality of Arjeplog, in Swedish Lapland, and is one of the nine founding parks of the Swedish system. It protects some 153 km² around the mountain that gives it its name, in Sami Bieljijgájsse.

Its original and present value is botanical: it preserves one of the best examples of mountain birch woodland in Sweden, the formation that occupies the belt between the conifer forest and the alpine tundra in Scandinavia. It is an open woodland of birches twisted by wind and snow, with a rich herbaceous understorey where carpets of mountain plants flower in summer.

Above the tree line the ground turns to alpine heath and rock, with small lakes and peat bogs in the hollows. The park is relatively little visited and is crossed by a section of the Kungsleden, the King's Trail, the best-known long-distance path in Sweden. The territory forms part of the reindeer grazing area of Sami communities, whose activity continues within the park.