The Site includes a stretch of the Dalälven River and numerous nutrient-rich freshwater lakes surrounded by meadows. Large, regularly flooded Carex marshes run along the lake and river shores.  The Site is important for staging wetland birds such as the black-throated diver Gavia arctica, the whooper swan Cygnus cygnus (with up to about 1,500 present in the autumn) and the crane Grus grus. Breeding species include the Eurasian curlew Numenius arquata, the corn crake Crex crex and the common rosefinch Carpodacus erythrinus. Grazing and haymaking are widely practiced to support the migrating and breeding birds. The Site is surrounded by arable land which provides important foraging areas. Some of the species which it supports depend on rivers with fluctuating water levels; however the water regime of the lakes and river is subject to artificial regulation, due in part to upstream hydro-electric plants. The Site was extended in 2001.