The Ranzental (840 - 1,005 m above sea level) is located to the west of the centre of the municipality Musau. Between the "Ranzen" mountain and the Musauer Berg mountain, this valley connects the municipality of Musau and the town of Vils. This area was designated a "Protected Landscape Area" back in 1990. Despite its distant location to the Lech, the Ranzental, with an area of 89.9 ha, belongs to the Tiroler Lech Nature Park / Nature Reserve.

There is a very special beech forest here, with trees that are strongly curved above the ground. A fen, a raised bog and sparse forest slopes with rare orchids lie close together.

At first glance, it is noticeable that all the trunks are strongly curved just above the ground. This indicates that the ground has moved. The cause of this is to be found in a mudflow or rockfall.

The beech stand is already very old - slow-growing Mosses and lichens on the lower part of the bent stems provide a clue.

The Hundsarschbach flows through the protected part of the landscape mostly hidden behind a strip of forest. It is heavily bed-loaded, which is clearly recognisable from the high gravel banks. Near-natural woodland strips are completely absent in certain areas.

For this area worthy of protection, a Management plan to preserve the special habitats and species.

The south-facing, steep slopes in the Ranc Valley warm up easily and are dry. They grow particularly Rare thermophilic plantslike the annoying Grass lily and many protected orchids (mosquito orchid, burnt orchid and spotted orchid).

A Fens with its dense tufts of grass, the small sedges, has developed over time on the damp subsoil. The fen meadows are partly grazed, extensively or intensively farmed or no longer farmed.

In some places, degraded meadows used as litter meadows are Raised bogs and small bodies of water. There is a raised bog in the south-east of the Ranzen Valley, which is surrounded by a spruce forest and is already heavily overgrown.