Location: Lleida, Catalonia
Area: 141 km2 (54 sq mi)
Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park is a nature
reserve in Catalonia region of Spain that covers an area of
141 km2 (54 sq mi). The National Park of Aiguas Tortas and Lake
of San Mauricio (in Catalan: National Park of Aigüestortes and
Estany de Sant Maurici, in Occitan, Parc Nacionau d'Aigüestòrtes
and Estanh de Sant Maurici) was created in 1955 and is the only
Spanish national park located in the autonomous community of
Catalonia. With 525,067 visitors annually (2015), the
Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park is the
eighth national park in Spain in number of visitors. It is
located in the central part of the Pyrenees divided between four
regions of the Pyrenees: Alta Ribagorza, Pallars Sobirà, Pallars
Jussà and Valle de Arán, in the province of Lleida,
encompassing, in its central part, territory of the municipal
boundaries of Espot and Valle de Bohí.
It has two areas: the eastern, continental climate and irrigated
by the tributaries of Noguera Pallaresa, which feed the lake of
San Mauricio, and the western (Aiguas Tortas), Atlantic high
mountain climate and bathed by the tributaries of Noguera
Ribagorzana. The geography of the park is high mountain because
much of the territory exceeds 1,000 meters above sea level, with
peaks that exceed 3,000 meters. Highlights, among all, two
valleys: to the west the valley of the San Nicolás River, with
its characteristic meadows and meanders from which comes the
name of "Aiguas Tortas" (tortuous waters).
Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park has a great
biological value. The large slopes that it presents originate
the different ecosystems: meadows, crops and deciduous forests
in the lower elevations, evergreen forests in the middle
elevations, and meadows and rocks of high mountain in the
highest levels. For years it has been a protected space and its
relatively inaccessible access, it has preserved the flora and
fauna in a rather wild state. In spite of everything, the
footprint of man is inevitable and the park is still exploited
by cattle, tourism and hydroelectric power plants.
The park has 40.852 ha divided into two different protection zones,
the internal zone and the peripheral zone. The internal zone is the one
that has the category of national park, strictly speaking and has 14,119
ha . The 26,733 ha of the peripheral zone surrounds the inner zone and
is intended to create a gradual level of protection between the more
protected inner part and the outer part.
The internal zone is
found, entirely, in the municipalities of the valley of Bohí and Espot .
On the Bohí slope, the San Nicolás valley and the head of the Noguera de
Tor river valley must be distinguished . Between the Llong and Llebreta
lakes, the San Nicolás river forms the characteristic meanders that are
the origin of the name Aguas Tortas . These meanders, which are not
exclusive to this place, are formed in flat places, when the space
occupied by an old lake fills with sediments.
On the Espot slope
is the Escrita River and the San Mauricio Lake. In this lake, like many
others in the Pyrenees, a set of dams was built in order to obtain
greater hydroelectric performance. The lake is located at the foot of
the imposing Los Encantados . This set formed by the lake of San
Mauricio and Els Encantats is another of the characteristic images of
the park's beauty and the motif that appears in the park's logo.
The "peripheral zone" includes the municipalities of Viella and Alto
Arán in the Valle de Arán; from Vilaller and the Bohí valley in Alta
Ribagorza ; The Cabdella Tower in Pallars Jussa ; and Espot, Alto Aneu,
Esterri de Aneu, La Guingueta and Sort in Pallars Sobirá. In this
peripheral area there are corners of great beauty and natural value,
such as the Mata de Valencia de Aneu forest, the Gerber and Cabanes
valleys, the Colomers circus , the Saboredo circus, the Valarties
riverbank, the Besiberri valley , the Cabdella lakes, the Montardo peak
and many others.
Human settlement in the High Pyrenees began as the last ice age
receded. No stable settlement was ever established within the park
boundaries. But recent archaeological studies have found remains of
temporary human settlements occupied more than 8,500 years ago, in the
Neolithic period . During the 19th century, coinciding with the period
of greatest demographic development in the valleys that surround the
park, human pressure was maximum, with intense forestry, livestock,
agricultural, and fish exploitation. During the first half of the 20th
century hydroelectric exploitation began in the Pyrenees, which meant a
profound alteration of the landscape that until then had remained fairly
well preserved.
In 1932, the Maciá Plan contemplated the creation
of the Alt Pyrenees National Park, but it was a decree of the Ministry
of Agriculture issued on October 21, 1955 that declared it a national
park according to the natural parks law of 1916 with the name of Parque
Nacional de Aiguas Tortas y Lago de San Mauricio (name that has not been
officially repeated or changed), with an initial extension of 9851 ha.
At that time it was the fifth national park in Spain and the second in
the Pyrenees after Ordesa.
On April 6, 1957, the first regulation
of Aiguas Tortas was approved. This regulation prohibited hunting and
regulated fishing and forest exploitation that continued to be carried
out within the interior of the park.
With the approval of the
Statute of autonomy of Catalonia in 1979, the Generalitat of Catalonia
obtained the powers for the management and legislation of natural parks.
Then began a time of co-management between the two administrations.
During this time some investments began to be made: the accesses were
fixed, the nursery was increased and the first maintenance and
information staff were hired during the summer months.
On March
30, the Generalitat of Catalonia enacts the Law (7/1988, of March 30)
for the reclassification of the national park, in accordance with the
Catalan law on natural spaces of 1985. An important aspect of this law
is the creation of the peripheral protection zone with the aim of
guaranteeing complete protection of natural resources and avoiding
possible ecological and landscape impacts from abroad.
As of this
moment, the regulations are tightened and fishing, camping, forest
exploitation and any other natural resource are prohibited, except
pastures and hydroelectric plants that have concessions in force. In the
peripheral zone, only traditional uses and exploitations compatible with
the objectives of environmental protection and conservation are allowed.
This law details the end of the cohabitation between the central and
regional administration. The State stops recognizing Aiguas Tortas as a
national park.
With Law 22/90 of December 28, the limits of the
peripheral zone, the composition of the park management board and the
permitted exploitation activities were partially modified.
On
July 5, 1996 there was a new expansion of the park that includes the
current 14,119 ha.
On November 5, 1997, at the request of an
appeal from the Generalitat of Catalonia, the Spanish law 4/1989 on
natural spaces was modified, enabling the management of national parks
by the autonomous communities and the return of Aiguas Tortas to the
network of national parks in Spain.
The geomorphology of the high Pyrenees allows the ecosystems that
occur within the park to be very varied, on the one hand because of the
different altitudes and on the other, the orientation of the slopes.
At all altitudes there are small ecosystems produced, either by the
shade, the banks of fast rivers or calm water lakes.
In the lower parts of the mountains, on the montane floor up to about
1500 m, there are mostly deciduous forests with downy oak , ash , beech
and hazel . These places, however, have been the most altered over the
centuries by human action and are often occupied by mowing or tine
meadows, bushes dominated by boxwood or secondary forests of Scots pine
.
Higher up, from 1,500 m to over 2,000 m, the domain of black
pine forests begins . Rhododendron and blueberry live in the shrub layer
of the shady parts. Bearberry and juniper prefer sunnier places. On the
shady and more humid slopes, below 2000 m, important fir forests grow .
La Mata de Valencia It is the most important fir forest in the
Pyrenees.Accompanying the forest are the whitebeams and the rowans (the
hunting rowan , and the Sorbus chamaemespilus), small trees of low
height characterized by the greyish color of their trunks and branches ,
as well as by their red fruits that persist from July until winter.
In the alpine pastures, above 2300 m, the forests no longer exist
but numerous species of high mountain flora can be found, for example
the alpine gentian , the snowy gentian , the Burser's gentian , the
purple saxifrage or different buttercups .
A part of the species
in the park (approximately 8%) are endemic to the Pyrenees in the broad
sense. About 7% have a strictly Borean-Alpine or Arctic-Alpine
distribution, and arrived in the Pyrenees during the last ice age. The
most important group of flora species in the park corresponds to the
Eurosiberian element, that is, the plants typical of humid central
Europe.
The fauna of the park, although it is very interesting, behaves
inconspicuously and is difficult to observe. It takes patience and a bit
of luck to see the most emblematic species. There are approximately 220
species of vertebrates, of which almost two thirds are birds. It is
worth noting the presence of the capercaillie, the golden eagle, the
bearded vulture, the griffon vulture, the ptarmigan, the black
woodpecker or the wallcreeper.
There are also passerines such as
the jay, the white wagtail, the alpine sparrow, the northern treecreeper
or the red rock thrush.
Some of the most representative mammals
are the chamois or chamois (rupicapra pyrenaica), the wild boar, the
stoat, the marten, the gray dormouse, the red squirrel or the roe deer.
The marmot and fallow deer were introduced during the 20th century.
On the banks you can find the Iberian desman .
The two main
rivers, the San Nicolás and the Escrita, and most of the lakes are
inhabited by common trout that have to share the space with other native
fish species that were introduced years ago by fishermen.
Among
amphibians, the Pyrenean newt, endemic to the north of the Iberian
Peninsula, is significant for its rarity. On the other hand, the grass
frog is very abundant. There are also reptiles, such as the yellow-green
snake or the poisonous asp viper.
The interior of the park offers a magnificent representation of the
geology of the Pyrenees. The predominant rocks, granite and slate, are
very old, having formed during the Primal Era. These very old materials
rose from the bottom of the sea during the Alpine orogeny, in the
Tertiary Era, giving rise to the current Pyrenees.
But without a
doubt what imprints the geological character of the central Pyrenees are
the successive glaciations of the Quaternary Era that covered these
mountains with extensive glaciers tens of kilometers long. The lakes,
the waterfalls, the sharp peaks, the vertiginous ridges, as well as the
U-shape of the valleys constitute a magnificent example of the erosive
action of these glaciers of which, today, only a few small relict
examples remain in the Aragonese Pyrenees.
Currently, water is
the main protagonist, both because of the characteristic meanders of the
high mountains, and because of the great concentration of lakes, rivers
and waterfalls. This park is the most important lake area in the
Pyrenees.
The average temperature in the park ranges between zero
and five degrees. Winter in the high mountains is very cold and in the
highest parts of the park for four months temperatures do not exceed 0
degrees.
The annual precipitations are between 900 mm and 1300 mm
distributed in about 150 days of precipitation. Of these 150 days, at
least 100 precipitations are in the form of snow.