There are 104 nature reserves in the voivodship of Varmia and Masuria. Their total area is 30,013,33ha. Several kinds of nature reserves can be distinguished, namely – fauna reserves, landscape reserves, forest reserves, peat bog reserves, flora reserves, water reserves, steppe reserves and inanimate nature reserves. Below you will find short descriptions of particular kinds of nature reserves.

The fauna nature reserve “Jezioro Łuknajno” (Łuknajno Lake) was created in 1947. The lake Łuknajno has always been popular with swans. In fact, it is estimated in many publications that about 2000 swans reside on the lake. This information, however, must be clarified, as it could be an obvious miscalculation. Swans are territory birds which are unable to nest in crowds. Defending their breeding sites would actually bring them too much harm and loss. The approximate number of nesting swans which can be observed on the lake is about 20 pairs. Nevertheless, when it comes to molting, swans need a safe, shallow lake with plenty of underwater vegetation, esp. charas. Łuknajno perfectly corresponds to such needs; thus, the number of molting swans in some seasons can go far beyond the average. In mild winters, for example, there can be as many as 1,900 mute swans on the lake. In the “Jezioro Łuknajno” refuge 96 bird species are estimated to nest. These include: many kinds of grebes, such as great crested grebes, red necked grebes, black necked grebes, little grebes, bitterns, little bitterns, pintails, shovelers, red-crested pochards, goldeneyes, marsh harriers, northern harriers, Eurasian hobbies, spotted crakes, little crakes, corn crakes, common terns, black terns and the bearded tits. At present the lake Łuknajno is one of ten biggest Polish little crakes refuge and an area with an impressive population of bitterns. Nearby the reserve predatory bird have found their nesting place and they frequently invade the area of the reserve in search of prey. These birds include: the sea eagle, the black kite, the red kite, the honey buzzard and the osprey. The most spectacular are definitely preying sea eagles and ospreys which can be observed from a number of viewing towers placed on the borderlines of the reserve. The nature reserve “Jezioro Łuknajno” has an area of over 680ha. It has been placed on the UNESCO biosphere reserves list. The law of the Ramsar convention has also listed it as a marshy protected area. Additionally, the reserve is an area of special birds protection, encompassed by the programme Nature 2000.

Management seat: Piecki, tel. + 48 89 742 14 58, tel./fax + 48 89 742 14 05
www.mazurskipark.pl

The landscape nature reserve “Źródła Rzeki Łyny” (the Springs of the Łyna River) was founded in 1950. Slightly east of the village called Łyna in the district of Nidzica there is a large hollow with side-way ravines and steep valleys. They give rise to oozing springs. Drop by drop their waters form brooks which join in the central part of the hallow, giving rise to the Łyna river – the biggest river of Varmia and Masuria. Although the force of the water is not particularly immense here, drops of water carry sand grains which cause landslides of the sand layers. This process has been classified as regressive erosion. As a result of its activity semicircular, amphitheatre-like niches, also known as water circuses, are formed on the sides of the valley. Water drops flow down in cascades from the circuses towards the lower ravine and finally form one stream at its outlet. In the past local inhabitants eagerly made use of the force of the flowing water. Hence, at the upper part of the Łyna we can see an old water mill, which today is closed and falls into ruin. The area of the valley is covered by and old (100-120 years old) deciduous wet-ground forest, with ash and alder trees dominating in the lower parts of the valley. The area of the reserve is under protection due to interesting hydrological phenomena which occur here, impressive vegetation as well as abundance of interesting animal species. The total area of the reserve is 120,54 ha and its full name of the nature reserve is "The Prof. Roman Kobendza Springs of the Łyna River”. The name was given to commemorate Prof. Kobendza and in recognition of his numerous merits in the field of Masurian wildlife protection. The reserve is open to the public and visitors will find here many facilities, such as a car park nearby the borders of the reserve, steps, footbridges and view platforms all over the reserve area. The most spectacular routes are marked and endowed with information boards.

Contact: Tourist Information in Nidzica tel. + 48 89 625 54 68
www.nidzica.pl

The forest nature reserve “Sosny Taborskie” (pine trees of Tabórz) was established in 1957 in order to protect the precious old-growth pine forest. Pine trees of Tabórz are high, straight and knotless, with high-placed crowns. Their timber is also endowed with great endurance qualities. Boat-building wood, especially the kind used for mast building, belonged to strategic raw materials in the past. This can be confirmed by documents from 1568 concerning the sale of Tabórz pine trees to the Danish queen who ordered them as mast building raw material. The pine tree of Tabórz also gained popularity among French researchers who followed Napoleon’s army. They managed to gather pine seeds and took steps to grow the species in their country, also for the sake of receiving mast-building raw material. In 1900 at the World Exhibition in Paris the pine tree of Tabórz, which came to be known in France as “bois du Tabre”, was considered as the world’s best pine raw material. In the era of sailing ships the most precious among mast building trees were Baltic pine trees. At the end of the 18th century one mast building pine tree was worth 1,5 kg of gold. Such trees are no longer that expensive, but they can still be observed in Lasy Taborskie (the Forest of Tabórz). In the reserve itself we can spot 240-260-year-old specimens. Obviously, due to the natural succession of the stand, the pine tree gives way to the beech, the oak and the hornbeam. The nature reserve has an area of 95,32ha, and it is situated near the village of Tabórz, the commune of Łukta, the Forest Inspectorate of Miłomłyn. There is a car park for visitors outside the reserve and a number of information boards in the reserve area.

Contact : Forest Inspectorate Miłomłyn tel. + 48 89 647 30 56
www.olsztyn.lasy.gov.pl

The peat bog nature reserve “Zakręt” was created in 1959 and extended in 1982. West of the village of Krutyń, towards the lake Mokre, at the junction of forest paths, 300m off the river, there is a 260-year-old oak tree, which has been considered as a nature monument. 250m farther, beside the road there is another nature monument known under the name “The Couple in Love”, consisting of a 200-year-old slender pine and a younger and shorter oak which embraces the pine tenderly with its boughs. “The Couple in Love” grows nearly on the borderline of the reserve “Zakręt”. The peat bog reserve is also famous for its small dystrophic lakes with floating islands. Dystrophic lakes are small forest bodies of water. They develop from the accumulation of organic matter from outside of the lake. The brown colour of their water is a result of their continuous acidification with precipitation flows as there is an input of organic acids (e.g. humic acids) from the breakdown of leaves and evergreen needles. The edges of such lakes are usually covered with peat skin, which tends to spread onto the surface of the lake. In this case the watershed gets covered with vegetation or even forested (e.g. self-sown pines). Due to strong winds such forested peninsulas may detach from the part attached to the edge. Islands formed in this way float over the lake. It is best to do sightseeing in the peat bog reserve “Zakręt” walking along the marked route. Lucky visitors are bound to encounter hazel grouses, goldeneyes, tufted ducks, common mergansers and green sandpipers. Visitors coming back towards the village of Krutyń from the eastern reserve border will find an impressive old oak on their way, known as “The Masurian Beekeeping Oak” with remains of an old wooden ladder. Wild bees resided here until 1976. The reserve has an area of 105,8 ha.

Contact: Forest Inspectorate Strzałowo 2 , tel. +48 89 742 11 65
www.olsztyn.lasy.gov.pl

The flora nature reserve “Jezioro Francuskie” (the French Lake) was established in 1963. It is situated in the area of Wzgórza Dylewskie, near the village of Wysoka Wieś. The protection zone of the reserve encompasses the small dystrophic lake together with the surrounding peat bog and the adjacent forest. The reserve has been founded in order to protect the relic swamp willow and the well-preserved local beech forest. The specific lay of the land and a considerably small area give rise to various ecosystems, for instance: water, peat bog and forest ecosystem, which contain species characteristic for the region. The most precious representatives include: swamp willows, several species of the marsh moss, mud sedges, crested ferns, round-leafed sundews, paradise plants, the common ivy, yellow water lilies and running clubmosses. What needs to be mentioned are also unique forest units such as marsh birch groves, humid mixed forests, beech forests, wet-ground forests and acid beech forests. The area of the reserve is 15,03 ha, where the lake waters cover 2,52 ha. The name of the lake brings back the memories the Napoleonic wars. According to documents, during the Napoleonic campaign local inhabitants, who had suffered a great deal of harm and loss from French soldiers, took revenge on several representatives of Napoleon’s army and drowned them in the lake.

Management seat: Jerzwałd tel./fax + 48 89 758 85 27
www.parkiwim.samorzady.pl

The water nature reserve “Rzeka Drwęca” (the Drwęca River) has an area of 1,888,27 ha. It was established in 1961 in order to preserve the local water environment with its fish population, esp. the trout, the salmon, the bulltrout and the vimba. The Drwęca river has its springs near the village of Drwęcko, at the altitude of 191 m above the sea level; the estuary of the river is situated in the town of Złotoryja (the voivodship of Kuyavy and Pomerania), at the altitude of 39 m above the sea level. Due to considerable level differences the Drwęca and its tributaries resemble, in fact, piedmont rivers of high water oxygenation. This is what creates perfect conditions for some species of fish and lampreys. In the research conducted in the 1950s it was estimated that the river was inhabited by 34 fish species, including the salmon, the bulltrout, the trout and the vimba. In the late 80s, due to gradual water contamination and as a result of damming up, as well as a rapid development of marine salmon fishing in the Baltic Sea, the Polish trout ceased to exist; namely, trouts no longer chose Polish rivers for their spawning season. It was then that the project of wandering fish species restitution in Poland was launched. Ichthyologists obtained the spawn of the salmon from the Dźwina river, and kept it in convenient artificial conditions until eventually it was introduced to our rivers (1995), for instance the Drwęca, in the form of so-called smolts. Young salmons get to the Baltic Sea, where they grow up and come back to their mother rivers in order to lay spawn. Out of three bulltrout species, two appear in the Drwęca river – the resident brown trout and the immigrant sea trout; the latter being a double-habitat species, just like the sturgeon, the salmon and the vimba, which spends one part of its life in freshwaters, and another part in the sea. Among other remarkable water species of the region we can distinguish the bullhead, the alpine bullhead, the river lamprey, the otter, the beaver, the kingfisher and the dipper. In the vicinity of the river we can also spot the sea eagle, the lesser-spotted eagle and the black stork.

Contact: Forest Inspectorate Olsztynek tel. +48 89 519 42 82
Contact: Tourist Information Nowe Miasto Lubawskie tel. +48 56 474 45 00
www.powiat-nowomiejski.pl

The inanimate nature reserve “Koniuszanka I” was established in 1978 in order to protect the local impressive results of water suffusion processes. The brook Napiwodzka Struga, which springs near the village of Wietrzychowo, flows through the village of Napiwoda and disappears in sandur sands 3-4 km north-east of the village near Rakarnia and Moczysko. It comes to the surface again in the form of oozing springs, which give rise to a brook called Koniuszanka. The brook flows towards the lake Koniuszyn, and further towards the lake Omulew. Between Rakarnia and the springs of Koniuszanka we can admire so-called suffosion craters, which mark the route of wandering underground watercourses. The depth of the craters vary from several centimetres to 3 metres; they are formed as a result of ground subsiding, followed by washing off the soil by underground waters. The nature reserve “Koniuszanka” has an area of 24,04ha. It is worth paying attention to the names of the local villages which reflect the occurrence of suffosion processes in the region. Napiwoda undoubtedly originates from the Polish phrase “picie wody” (water drinking). The village Moczysko (a wet area) is situated beside a landlocked hallow which is covered by waters of the brook Napiwodzka Struga. The hallow stores the water for some time until it changes into an underground watercourse or evaporates.

Contact: Forest Inspectorate Nidzica tel. + 48 89 625 28 41, +48 89 625 28 79
www.olsztyn.lasy.gov.pl

The steppe nature reserve “Kulka” was founded in 1955 in order to preserve the part of the mixed forest with pontic flora sites. It needs to be emphasized, however, that the reserve “Kulka” is not an actual steppe, but merely an area where steppe vegetation appears in considerable accumulation. In fact, it should be classified as a flora nature reserve. “Kulka” has an area of 12,39ha – it is a narrow strip of land on the eastern, steep bank of the lake Łęsk. The reserve used to be abundant in steppe plants, such as: the pasque flower, the small pasque flower, the sainfoin, the hairy milk-vetch, the yellow pincushion flower, the clusterhead, the common agrimony, the owl-head clover, the sweet peas, the white swallow-wort, the peach-leaf bellflower and the lupine clover. The amount of xerothermic (steppe) plants in the reserve is becoming more and more reduced due to several factors, such as abandonment of extensive grazing, the process of grass overgrowing with bracken and bushes and convergence of tree crowns which cast a lot of shade and thus worsen conditions for photophilic plants.

Contact: Forest Inspectorate Korpele tel. +48 89 624 22 58, +48 89 624 22 57
www.olsztyn.lasy.gov.pl