Seiland National Park ( or ) lies in

Alta Municipality Alta (; ; ; ) is the most populated List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Alta (town), town of Alta. Some of the main villages in the ...

and

Hammerfest Municipality Hammerfest (; ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality being the Hammerfest (town), town of Hammerfest which is considered the List of no ...

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The park includes the majority of the island of

Seiland or is a substantial island off Norway's northern coast, covering about . It is the eighth largest island in Norway proper, located in Finnmark county. It sits within the Caledonian orogenic zone, a mountain‑building belt formed during t ...

, the second-largest island in

after

Sørøya or is Norway's fourth largest island in terms of area and the largest in Finnmark county. The island is divided between Hasvik Municipality and Hammerfest Municipality. It is often claimed to be "one of the most beautiful" of the islands in ...

. The park includes two

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

Seilandsjøkelen or is a glacier that is located on the island of Seiland in Finnmark county, Norway. The glacier is located in the municipalities of Hammerfest and Alta. The glacier is located inside Seiland National Park, about southeast of the mounta ...

and Nordmannsjøkelen (the northernmost glaciers in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

). The highest point in the park is the tall mountain Seilandstuva. The park was established on 8 December 2006. The of the water inside the park's area, includes the surrounding sea and many

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

s including the Nordefjorden, Sørefjorden, and Flaskefjorden.

Flora and habitats

Saltfjellet–Svartisen encompasses a diverse suite of semi‑natural coastal and alpine habitats. Along the

inlets, narrow belts of

coastal meadow Coastal meadows are meadows in the coastal zone, influenced by the sea. Under this definition, the salinity of the air and wind is usually high and the flora is dominated by salt-tolerant species. Some coastal meadows may be flooded by seawater ...

and semi‑natural grassland persist where historic mowing and

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

have maintained species‑rich turf; botanists have recorded vulnerable plants such as the Finnmark snow‑primrose (''

Primula farinosa ''Primula farinosa'', the bird's-eye primrose, is a small perennial plant in the family Primulaceae, native to Northern Europe and further south at high altitudes in the mountains of southern Europe. It is also widespread in northern and central ...

'') and other red‑listed taxa in these areas. Above the shoreline, extensive stands of traditional hay meadows ()—classified as

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

—survive on the slopes north of Store Bekkarfjord, where remnants of 20th‑century mowing remain visible in both field observations and

aerial imagery Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing airc ...

. Farther inland, semi‑natural

mire A peatland is a type of wetland whose soils consist of Soil organic matter, organic matter from decaying plants, forming layers of peat. Peatlands arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, du ...

s and wet meadows show traces of former peat cutting and

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food ...

harvest, supporting robust communities of bottle sedge (''

Carex rostrata ''Carex rostrata'', the bottle sedge or beaked sedge, is a perennial species of sedge in the family Cyperaceae. Range and habitat The species is native to Holarctic fens and can be found in Canada and the northern part of the United States, and ...

''), cloudberry (''

Rubus chamaemorus ''Rubus chamaemorus'' is a species of flowering plant in the rose family. Its English common names include cloudberry, Nordic berry, bakeapple (in Newfoundland and Labrador), knotberry and knoutberry (in England), aqpik or low-bush salmonberry ( ...

'') and sundew (''

Drosera ''Drosera'', which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genus, genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. 2 volumes. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucil ...

'' spp.) in association with old drainage ditches. Upland areas above the

tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...

are dominated by boreal

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

—with

crowberry ''Empetrum nigrum'', crowberry, black crowberry, mossberry, or, in western Alaska, Labrador, etc., blackberry, is a flowering plant species in the heather family Ericaceae with a near circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. Desc ...

reindeer lichen ''Cladonia rangiferina'', also known as reindeer cup lichen, reindeer lichen (cf. Sw. ''renlav'') or grey reindeer lichen, is a light-coloured fruticose, cup lichen species in the family Cladoniaceae. It grows in both hot and cold climates in ...

and

dwarf shrub A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or undershrub is either a small shrub (e.g. prostrate shrubs) or a perennial that is largely herbaceous but slightly woody at the base (e.g. garden pink and florist's chrysanthemum). The term is often interch ...

vegetation—and by

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

on exposed ridges, where low cold‑tolerant

forb A forb or phorb is a herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in botany and in vegetation ecology especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically, these are eudicots without woo ...

s and

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

‑ and

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

‑rich

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth and other terrestrial planets. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most p ...

s form a continuous mosaic of high‑latitude alpine

plant communities A plant community is a collection or Association (ecology), association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The comp ...

Fauna

In June and July 2019, helicopter‑based surveys logged 122 bird observations across 27 species, yielding precise locations for nests and territories of raptors and

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

s. Five

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of pr ...

(''Aquila chrysaetos'') territories were confirmed—two of which

fledge Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between egg, hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight. This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnera ...

d young in 2019—and nine

white-tailed eagle The white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), sometimes known as the 'sea eagle', is a large bird of prey, widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like all eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which also ...

(''Haliaeetus albicilla'') territories were recorded, with at least one successful brood. Observations also included red‑listed species such as

Eurasian curlew The Eurasian curlew or common curlew (''Numenius arquata'') is a very large wader in the family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across temperate Europe and Asia. In Europe, this species is often referred ...

(''Numenius arquata'') and

black-tailed godwit The black-tailed godwit (''Limosa limosa'') is a large, long-legged, long-billed shorebird first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. It is a member of the godwit genus, '' Limosa''. There are four subspecies, all with orange head, neck and ches ...

(''Limosa limosa''), as well as vulnerable falcons (

gyrfalcon The gyrfalcon ( or ) (), also abbreviated as gyr, is a bird of prey from the genus ''Falco'' (falcons and kestrels) and the largest species of the family Falconidae. A high-latitude species, the gyrfalcon breeds on the Arctic coasts and tundra, ...

and

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known simply as the peregrine, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family (biology), family Falconidae renowned for its speed. A large, Corvus (genus), cro ...

) and locally important ptarmigan (''

Lagopus ''Lagopus'' is a genus of birds in the grouse subfamily commonly known as ptarmigans (). The genus contains four living species with numerous described subspecies, all living in tundra or cold upland areas. Taxonomy and etymology The genus ''L ...

'' spp.). The distribution of these records, plotted against park boundaries, emphasises the importance of coastal cliffs and inland ridges as breeding and

foraging Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavi ...

areas. Mammalian records during the same fieldwork included

Eurasian otter The Eurasian otter (''Lutra lutra''), also known as the European otter, Eurasian river otter, European river otter, common otter, and Old World otter, is a semiaquatic mammal native to Eurasia and the Maghreb. The most widely distributed member o ...

(''Lutra lutra''), a

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

in Norway, and evidence of

Arctic hare The Arctic hare (''Lepus arcticus'') is a species of hare highly adapted to living in the Arctic tundra and other icy biomes. The Arctic hare survives with shortened ears and limbs, a small nose, fat that makes up close to 20% of its body, and a ...

References

{{authority control National parks of Norway Hammerfest Alta, Norway Protected areas established in 2006 Protected areas of Finnmark Tourist attractions in Finnmark 2006 establishments in Norway