Green Belt of Vitoria-Gasteiz -Salburua park

Presentation | How to get here | Map and aerial views | Ecological importance | Recovery of the wetlands | Vital ways | Ataria

Salburua is a natural wetland formed by the emergence of subterranean waters from the "Quaternary Aquifer of Vitoria", an enormous pocket of water that extends under a large part of the Llanada Alavesa.

Before 1857, the wetlands of Salburua consisted of at least three large lakes: Betoño, to the west; Larregana, to the north and Arcaute, to the southeast. There is evidence of their extraordinary wealth of pastureland, hunting and fishing, and as a result, these wetlands were famous throughout the region. At that time, they were unquestionably one of the most valuable lake complexes from the ecological viewpoint in the whole of the Basque Country. Around lake Arcaute there was a large oak wood, a characteristic feature of the forested landscape of the Llanada Alavesa.

In 1857, the process began to drain the lakes and to cut down the trees in the woods in order to use this land for farming. First, the lake Larregana was drained, followed by Arcaute and finally, in the mid 20th-century, the lake Betoño was also drained.

When the work to recover these wetlands began in 1994, only a small wood had survived from the ancient, varied and rich landscape that existed to the north of Elorriaga and a remnant of the wetlands near Betoño, where the last animals and plants typical of this medium fought for survival in an environment subject to all kinds of impact: poaching, the illegal erection of shacks and huts, the dumping of waste, etc.

The ecological recovery work began by putting a stop to the drainage of lake Betoño. In 1998, a dike was built to close off the channel that drained the lakes of Larregana and Arcaute into the river Alegría. As a result of this work, a space measuring more them 200 hectares has been recovered, of which (when water levels are at their highest) 60 ha are in the form of lakes. Recently, the total amount of land covered by lakes has increased with the restoration of the lake Duranzarra.

The work to restore Salburua has also been used as a defence against the flooding of the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, using the lakes as separation pools when the rivers Santo Tomás and Errekaleor overflow their banks. This contributes to preventing these rivers from causing floods at the point where they join the sewage network in Betoño. Moreover, since 1994, work has been done to restore the vegetation and landscaping of the area around the lakes and along their watercourses, which is helping attempts to recover part of the original wealth of Salburua.

In addition to the task of ecological recuperation, work has been done to favour the public use of the wetlands and to foster a greater awareness of their importance (preparation of itineraries, the creation of sitting areas, the installation of bird observatories and an information office).

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