Drawsko Landscape Park

The park was founded in 1979 and covers an area of nearly 64,000 hectares, including the buffer zone. The area of the park itself is 414.3 km2. The park protects the most valuable part of the Drawa Lake District, covering the municipalities of Barwice, Borne Sulinowo, Czaplinek Ostrowice, Połczyn-Zdrój and Złocieniec.

The terrain of the park is the result of the glacier activity. In its northern part there are deposits of a terminal moraine, cut by numerous ravines. The southern part of the park is milder and abounds in lakes. Its natural attractiveness is caused by the said lakes (more than 70 ones, including the largest and deepest of them - Lake Drawsko), numerous rivers (with the Drawa as the most important one), streams, springs, wetlands, peatlands, forests, boulders and about 300 natural monuments. There are 42 species of protected plants and 138 species of breeding birds in the park. You can find there: swans, grebes, ducks, cranes, herons, cormorants, white-tailed eagles, red kites and lesser spotted eagles. Mammals are represented by numerous colonies of beavers.

The most valuable natural parts of the park are under reserve protection.

These include: Lake Czarnówek - a water and flora reserve, where a lobelia lake with vegetation typical of this kind of reservoir is protected.
The peat bog by Lake Morzysław Mały - a peat-flora reserve characterised by the presence of as many as nineteen different complexes of aquatic, semi-aquatic and bog plants on such a small area.
Brunatna Gleba [Brown Soil] - a soil reserve, created in order to preserve unaltered classic brown soil with characteristic forest bed and undergrowth.
Dolina Pięciu Jezior [Valley of the Five Lakes] - a nature reserve covering the most attractive area of ​​the park in terms of landscape values. It consists of the upper Drawa River and five lakes surrounded by hills covered with a beech forest.
Lake Prosino - an ornithological reserve protecting habitats and breeding sites of rare waterfowl.
Zielone Bagna [Green Swamps] - a peat reserve, which is a mainstay of rare species of mosses.
The Toporzyk peat bog - a peat-forest reserve located in the buffer zone of the park and protecting peat and moss associations of a relic nature.
The Dębnica Gorge - a nature reserve where young glacial landscape of the gorge of submontane character is protected.
Brzozowe Bagno [the Birch Swamp] near Czaplinek - a forest reserve located in the buffer zone of DLP (Drawa Landscape Park), created to protect the vegetation of the high moor peat of the Baltic type, as well as coniferous forests and swamp forests.

Four hiking trails have been marked in the park. These are:

The green trail of the lakes (terminal moraine hills) leading from Złocieniec to Strzeszyn and past the biggest lakes in the park.
The red forest-landscape trail (the salt one) leading from Połczyn Zdrój to Czaplinek through the most attractive scenic sites and associations of beech forests.
The blue forest trail (Połczyn Switzerland) leading from Połczyn Zdrój to Czaplinek, along which a visitor explores the south-eastern parts of the park having a mountain-like landscape.
The black nature trail leading from Złocieniec to Połczyn Zdrój, where the most valuable reserves of the park are.

In addition, there are five nature-educational paths:

Bielawa Island - located on the largest island in Lake Drawsko, where a visitor can become familiar with the nature typical of lake islands.
The Valley of the Five Lakes - located directly by the Czaplinek - Połczyn Zdrój road and containing the most scenic areas of the park, where the Drawa has its spring.
The Dębnica Gorge leading along the picturesque glacial landscape of a small mountain-like stream. It is protected as a nature reserve.
Spyczyna Góra - Lake Prosino - starting at the ruins of the Drahim castle in Stare Drawsko. Its main attraction is the observation platform and the ornithological reserve.
Lake Czarnówek - located about 4 km north of Złocieniec, with floral peculiarities of the park including a lobelia lake that is unique in Europe.

Cyclists can use the routes marked out mainly on paved roads. Canoeists must go rafting down the Drawa.