Slītere National Park

The park includes (in Latvian: Sliteres Nacionalais parks ), founded in 2000, is the smallest of the four national parks in Latvia. He is part of the European Natura 2000 network. The area is located at the northern tip of Courland around the Cape Kolka. Included are 163.6 km ² land and 101.3 km ² water surface to the 10 m isobath in the Baltic Sea.

The park was established, inter alia, from the 11 km ² nature reserve Slitere whose forest had remained uncultivated since 1921. In 1957 the Reserve 78.6 km ² in 1977 to 148.8 km ² has been extended. Large areas were left at the time of the Soviet Union as a military zone itself.

In the south of the national park are the "Blue Mountains" ( cilia kalni ), elevations 20-30 m, which once formed the shores of the Baltic Ice in the finale of the Weichsel glaciation. From a 1849 built lighthouse approx. 5,3 km inland, one has a good view over the Blue Mountains, which flank with natural deciduous forest, the upstream wetland crossed by several parallel, pine -covered dunes trains and the coast with sandy beaches.

The National Park is divided into several protection zones. Parts may not be accessed by visitors. However, there are several biking and hiking trails through the National Park.

In the coastal villages such as Kolka, Mazirbe Sīkrags and Saunags the Livonian language and culture has received the longest.

Flora and Fauna

Due to the different habitats is also a diversified flora and fauna with many plants, fungi and animals, often found only here in Latvia. It 128 mosses, 195 lichens and more than 700 fungi have been documented. The slopes of the Blue Mountains are covered with wild garlic, yew, Baltic Ivy, Mountain Speedwell and shield ferns. In Latvia, the Forest Hair barley and the bulrush Stumpfblütige occurs only in this national park.

In the pine stands of the largest native beetle in Latvia, the Mulmbock or whose larvae live on dead wood. The in Latvia endangered Green precious scratching beetle is found with many old trees and dead wood as a nesting site in a national park in the original mixed deciduous forest. The adult beetles feed on flowering plants, in particular the rights meadowsweet.

Protected amphibians and reptiles are the natterjack toad, the European pond turtle and the smooth snake.

125 species of birds breed here, including the capercaillie, black grouse and the black stork, fish eagle, serpent eagle, golden eagles and eagle owls. The area lies on the path of migratory birds. At Cape Kolka, the fly-through concentrated: in spring and autumn here fly by partially tens of thousands of birds per hour.

There are 40 mammal species detected in the National Park, including the wolf, the lynx and moose. Small mammals are, inter alia, the birch mouse, the dormouse and the water shrew. The frequent in the national park formed by beaver dams to build its landscape.