Żabie Doły is a nature and landscape protected area in

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

, Poland. The Żabie Doły complex is located entirely within the

Metropolis GZM The Metropolis GZM (, formally in Polish (Upper Silesian-Dąbrowa Basin Metropolis)) is a metropolitan association () composed of 41 contiguous gminas, with a total population of over 2 million, covering most of the Katowice metropolitan area i ...

and encompasses land heavily altered by human activity. The protected area covers 2.262 km² . At Żabie Doły, 129 species of birds have been identified, including 70 nesting species and 17 species rare in the region.Piotr A. Jeleń, ''Bytomskie parki i zakątki przyrodnicze - "Żabie Doły"'', Wiadomości24.pl, 2009-08-1

/ref> Other fauna and flora is also well represented. The name ""Żabie Doły" can be roughly translated as "Frog Ditches".

Location and history

The Żabie Doły conservation area is located entirely within the limits of the cities of

Bytom Bytom (Polish pronunciation: ; Silesian language, Silesian: ''Bytōm, Bytōń'', ) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Voivodeship, the city is 7 km northwest of Katowice, the regional capital. It is one ...

Chorzów Chorzów ( ; ; ) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Metropolis GZM – a metropolis with a population of 2 million. It is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Rawa ...

and Piekary Slaskie in the center of the highly urbanized region of

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

. Many centuries of human activity, in particular underground

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and metal smelting, left the area covered with unused water retention pools, post-mining

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...

tailings In mining, tailings or tails are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material ...

and

slag heap A spoil tip (also called a boney pile, culm bank, gob pile, waste tip or bing) is a pile built of accumulated ''spoil'' – waste material removed during mining. Spoil tips are not formed of slag, but in some areas, such as England and Wales, ...

s. The local mining included

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

, and hard

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

. The majority of the land transformation by the humans occurred in the 1950s. The discovery of its current biological richness was a surprise. The area received the legally-protected status in 1997, partially due to the interest of high-school students (from high schools in Bytom and

Louisenlund Stiftung Louisenlund is a privately run boarding school for boys and girls in Güby, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. History The school's main building is in Louisenlund Palace, which was built by Hermann von Motz between 1772 and 1776 for Prince Ch ...

, Germany).

Legal status

The Żabie Doły area has currently a status of the "nature and landscape complex" within the legal framework of the

protected areas of Poland __NOTOC__ Protected areas of Poland include the following categories, as defined by the Act on Protection of Nature (') of 16 April 2004,

. Currently, efforts are under way to further upgrade the status to that of a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

Railroad accident

On the day of 14th April 1988 here on the former track ''Pole Północne – Maciejkowice'' of the former (Upper-Silesian narrow-gauge railways) at track-km 12,850 an accident has occurred where a train fell of the embankment which was undermined by floating water due to a clogged culvert. The crew of the involved locomotive Lxd2-362 consisting of the engineer and his helper got injured.

Sources

Literature

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zabie Doly Protected areas of Poland Silesian Voivodeship Bytom