Instead of drying out, it is a real oasis: a success story about the restoration of the Reed Lake - Nádas tó from Salonta

The rehabilitation of the reed lake located at the exit from the municipality of Salonta towards Arad, is one of the results of the ROHU 14 project - Conservation, protection and promotion of the natural values from the Salonta-Békéscsaba crossborder area - The Nature Corner, carried out by the Salonta Municipality and its partners during 01 /03/2022 – 30/06/2023. Now it is a real oasis for many species. It is a true example that the restoration of natural areas can be achieved through common will and effort, regardless of borders.

Based on the old maps, this lake was formed on one of the marshy valleys of the Culișer meadow, Nádas-ér, from where the current name is derived (nádas = with reeds). At the beginning of the ROHU14 project, the lake presented areas with water sheen and floating vegetation, on the verge of extinction due to eutrophication, natural succession, but especially due to the clogging of the lake through excavations for obtaining clay. If the development of the eutrophic lake had not taken place within the project, it would have become an area that would have evolved naturally from marsh to land, a fact that would have considerably limited the presence of species which depend on water.

Considering the fact that most of the land adjacent to the lake is used in intensive agriculture, limiting the development of habitats and biodiversity, but also taking into account the fact that the Cefa Natural Park has been decommissioned, now, the eutrophic lake from Salonta, after being rehabilitated, has become an oasis of habitats characteristic of wetlands, for an important diversity of species. The biological study undertaken to evaluate and monitor the biodiversity of the eutrophic lake in Salonta, before and after landscaping, shows that a multitude of species use the newly created or rather renatured environment. Although the lake measures just over 5 ha, it is a shelter or home for many invertebrate species that prefer fresh waters, amphibians (especially newts), birds (generally aquatic), but also mammals, from deer, wild boar or badger to the recently discovered otters, which settled in the marsh after the water surface was increased.

At the same time, the investments have significantly improved the quality of the aquatic environment, both by substantially increasing the volume of water contained in the site, and by significantly changing the physical-chemical parameters of the water in the marsh.

The renaturation of the eutrophic lake creates the prerequisites for the existence of aquatic habitats that are rare at national level, where fish species such as caracuda, gypsy or grayling could live, although they were all decimated in the last decades as a result of the destruction of their favourable habitats, of damming and drying.

"The hereby project represents an example of good practice and it can be replicated in other similar sites where an appropriate water supply source can be ensured" (Andrei Togor, ichthyologist, APS Aqua Crisius).

The content of this material does not necessarily represent the official position of the European Union.