![Møkjedalen (Bjørn Moe)](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/kvi_22.jpg?itok=iPMTpA3a)
![Tveita](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/190/nvh_260_tveitabotn_2_150.jpg?itok=qnyU8yR3)
![Blood-red geranium](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/kvi_24.jpg?itok=b63Z_duB)
![Old pine forest (Bjørn Moe)](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/berg_31_0.jpg?itok=MQkkp4J8)
![Part of the Yddal nature preserve seen from the air.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/fusa_17.jpg?itok=zg9HUkfS)
Yddal
Yddal is one of the biggest and finest pine forest areas in the county. The rich forest resources provided an important foundation for the settlement of Yddal. Up until about the 1950s, there were three farms here. Where the lumberjacks couldn't get to, the trees grew very big and can be over 300 years old.
![Slåttene](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/sam_14.jpg?itok=TPx2vADn)
![Lake Storavatnet. Mt. Eldsfjellet in the background.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/meland_15.jpg?itok=TRb_90-d)
Rylandvassdraget
There is a lot of trout and a large char population in Lake Rylandsvatnet. The lake was stocked with char, probably in 1907. The promoters of the project were the family Ameln, who owned eight mills in Rylandsvågen and parts of the Ryland farm.
![Otterstadstølen](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/mo_4.jpg?itok=yFY5zoII)
Otterstadstølen
Otterstadstølen lies in an idyllic grassy plain surrounded by rich forest, but also with high mountains close by. The mountainsides are steep and typical of this part of the county. The same cannot be said about the forest. This spruce forest has been able to develop freely for hundreds of years. Otherwise in the county, only Voss has spruce forest.
![The green Hisøya Island](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/bomlo_45.jpg?itok=QgN_C4RW)
Hisøya
"I am going to prove to you that I am right". That is what the idealist and county doctor Christian Heitmann is supposed to have said in the early 1890s. He sat together with the parish priest, Kullmann, at Heitmann's home in Stord and discussed whether the islands in western Norway could have been forested or not. The priest thought that the area was too barren and weather-beaten for forest to have been able to grow so far out in the sea. But, Heitmann was sure he was right. He challenged the scepticism and set off to work.
![Bergesvatnet Lake with Skogafjellet to the left.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/bo_49.jpg?itok=kEQx0X4t)
Skogafjellet
You have to travel to Scotland in order to find pine forests similar to those at Bømlo. The nearness to the sea has contributed in different ways to shaping one of the westernmost pine forests in Norway.