Padurea Letea Scientific Reserve

Description

Letea Forest is the oldest natural reservation in Romania that was established in 1938, when the Romanian Council of Ministers passed Decision No. 645 declaring the Letea Forest a nature reserve. It is located between the Sulina and Chilia branches of Danube in the Danube Delta. It also covers an area of approximately 2,825 ha (6,980 acres).

This forest was the initial foundation of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, which has been declared a World Heritage Site. It was internationally recognized as a Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme in 1992.

It has a subtropical aspect, due to the presence of the tropical creeper named Periploca graeca. This is a Mediterranean plant which finds its most northern refuge in the Danube Delta. Along with this, types of liana and other climbing plants are woven on the branches of the trees, such as the wild vine, the hop plant and the ivy.

Letea Forest is formed mainly from trees like White Poplar, Black Poplar, Elm tree, English Oak, Silver Lime, Narrow-leafed Ash and Common Alder. Along with these ones above, it is completed by a rich scale of sub-shrub species.

It is also home for a rich fauna like the Red-footed Falcon, the White-tailed Eagle, the Roller, the Hoopoe, the Vipera ursinii and the Danube Delta horse. There are approximately 1600 entomofauna species identified until today.