Rotuz Nature Reserve

Rotuz is a strict nature reserve in the Upper Vistula Valley, south of Lake Goczałkowice. It lies on the border of Chybie and Zabrzeg, within the municipalities of Chybie and Czechowice-Dziedzice. It protects a transitional mire with bog vegetation, alongside fragments of fens and raised bogs and of bog and damp pine forest.

What is protected here

The aim of protection is to preserve forest mires together with fragments of bog and damp pine forest, for scientific, educational and landscape reasons. The largest area is taken up by transitional mires: cottongrass moss bog and a quaking mat of moss and cottongrass. Among the reserve's special features is a raised-bog hummock-and-hollow moss bog.

The reserve is home to 86 species of vascular plants, 19 liverworts, 69 mosses and 19 lichens, and the ground layer is dominated by peat mosses and other mosses. Protected plants include the round-leaved sundew, the broad-leaved helleborine, the alder buckthorn and the marsh Labrador tea. The edge of the mire is surrounded by pine forest in which the pines are low, with twisted trunks, and many of them are dead. Bird observations from the mid-1990s confirmed 25 species here, including the raven, the common snipe and the woodlark.

History of protection

The area was studied by naturalists associated with the Silesian Museum in Katowice as early as the mid-1930s. A reserve of a floristic character was created in 1966 on 21.24 ha, and was later enlarged several times; today it covers 40.63 ha. A buffer zone of 136.29 ha was marked out around it.

Practical information

• Location: the border of Chybie and Zabrzeg, Cieszyn County, south of the Goczałkowice reservoir.
• This is a strict reserve, so restrictions on entry apply. Before you travel, check the rules for visiting and any paths with the reserve's manager or the municipal office.