The Natural Park of the Marismas de Alba, the Alba Marsh or the Xunqueira de Alba (''in Galician''), is a natural park and

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

in the city of

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a city in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. It is the capital of both the ''Pontevedra (comarca), Comarca'' and Province of Pontevedra, and the capital of the Rías Baixas. It is als ...

in Spain, and one of the few

Marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

es in the

Ria de Pontevedra The Ria de Pontevedra is located in the Province of Pontevedra, in Galicia, Spain. It is one of the three main maritime entrances of Galicia, the Rías Baixas, the most touristic area of the region. It is also the most regular of them and the thi ...

. It is a park used as a place for walking, cycling and observing the

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

and

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

Location and access

The park is located at the mouth of the Rons river in the

Lérez The Lérez is a river in South West Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. The river meets the Atlantic Ocean at Pontevedra, where it creates Pontevedra's ria. The sources of the long stream are in Serra do Candán, in the mountain of San Bieito, in t ...

river –

in the south of the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Alba, a few metres from the northern part of the city of

. Just cross the

bowstring bridge A tied-arch bridge is an arch bridge in which the outward-directed horizontal forces of the arch(es) are borne as tension by a chord tying the arch ends rather than by the ground or the bridge foundations. This strengthened chord may be the deck ...

of the

Currents Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (hy ...

to find the entrance to the park, in Domingo Fontán Street. It is bordered to the east by the neighbourhood of A Santiña and

the Portuguese Way The Portuguese Way (, ) is the name of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes starting in Portugal. It begins at Porto or Lisbon. From Porto, along the Douro River, pilgrims travel north crossing the five main rivers—the Ave, Cávado, Neiva, ...

and to the west by the AP-9 motorway.

History

There was no idea of how to use the marsh until the end of the 1970s, when, due to the lack of industrial land in the municipality of Pontevedra, it was decided to drain it and turn it into an industrial area. There were also plans to build a new football stadium or even a theme park. However, the San Benito Association of the civil parish of Lérez, claimed part of the land as a space belonging in common to the inhabitants of Lérez, which saved this area of great natural wealth from destruction. In 1981, a court in Pontevedra ordered the construction of an industrial and commercial area to be built there to be stopped. As the Alba Marsh was in a serious state of degradation, the Spanish Ministry of the Environment decided to recover it. The rehabilitation of the marsh was planned by the socialist government of

Felipe González Felipe González Márquez (; born 5 March 1942) is a retired Spanish politician who was Prime Minister of Spain from 1982 to 1996 and leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from 1974 to 1997. He is the longest-serving democratically- ...

and was inaugurated in 2000, with

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (, ; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, vote of no confidence ousted his government. A m ...

as vice-president of the Spanish government. Location_Map_Pontevedra_Xunqueira_de_Alba

In 2001, the Pontevedra City Council took over the maintenance of the Alba Marsh. The town council cleaned the river, pruned trees and recovered or replaced diseased specimens, mowed meadows and selectively removed weeds, among other works. In 2012, the nature park was declared the first Natural Area of Local Interest (ENIL) in Galicia. At the end of December 2021, the project to extend the park with a 17,000 square metre native forest in front of Domingo Fontán Avenue was presented, on the site of the heavy machinery park and the Provincial Printing Office of the Pontevedra Provincial Council, which were demolished. Species such as

common oak ''Quercus robur'', the pedunculate oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe and western Asia, and is widely cultivated in other temperate regions. It grows on soils ...

cork oak ''Quercus suber'', commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris, ''Quercus'' sect. ''Cerris''. It is the primary source of cork (material), cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, ...

black ash Black ash is a common name for several plants and may refer to: * ''Acer negundo'', native to North America * ''Fraxinus nigra ''Fraxinus nigra'', or the black ash, is a species of ash native to much of eastern Canada and the northeastern United ...

common hazel ''Corylus avellana'', the common hazel, is a species of flowering plant in the birch family Betulaceae. The shrubs usually grow tall. The nut is round, in contrast to the longer filbert nut. Common hazel is native to Europe and Western Asia. Th ...

crack willow Crack frequently refers to: * Crack, a fracture in a body * Crack, a fracture (geology) in a rock * Crack, short for crack cocaine Crack(s) or The Crack may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Crack'', first album by The Ruts ...

, strawberry tree,

grey willow Grey willow or gray willow may refer to: *''Salix atrocinerea'', a species of willow native to Europe commonly called grey willow *''Salix cinerea'', a species of willow native to Europe and western Asia, also occasionally called grey sallow *''Sal ...

holly ''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

and

laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...

were planted. A pathway was laid out between the Rons River lane and this new open green area, equipped with public lighting and urban furniture.

Description

Three areas can be distinguished in the park: the

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

, the

scrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

and the muddy plain at the mouth of the Rons River. The marshy area of the nature park remains subject to the flow of the tides and thus, every six hours, a part of it goes from being covered by water to being exposed. In this habitat, which is of great landscape and ecological importance, 17 Trees, 14 species of

Shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s, 4 climbers or creeping plants and 80 herbaceous plants have been inventoried. There are more than two hundred varieties of plants and trees (including

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Earth ...

Chicory Common chicory (''Cichorium intybus'') is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant of the family Asteraceae, usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Native to Europe, it has been introduced to the Americas and Australia. M ...

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

poplars ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The we ...

ash trees ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are evergr ...

) and some seventy animal species listed. There are also many rushes, hence the Galician name ''xunqueira'' (rush). There are a total of 115 different species of flora present in the park, such as

sea thrift ''Armeria maritima'', the thrift, sea thrift or sea pink, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae. It is a compact evergreen perennial which grows in low clumps and sends up long stems that support globes of bright pink flow ...

sea plantain ''Plantago maritima'', the sea plantain, seaside plantain or goose tongue, is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae. It has a subcosmopolitan distribution in temperate and Arctic regions, native to most of Europe, n ...

, sea fennel, callitriche stagnalis or broad-leaved cattail. It is an environment that is home to a wide variety of natural species, both birds and animals, such as

Water bird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

dragonflies A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threate ...

Amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

s and small

Mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s. For this reason, the park and the marsh are currently protected. There are three

viewpoints Viewpoints is a movement-based pedagogical and artistic practice that provides a framework for creating and analyzing performance by exploring spatial relationships, shape, time, emotion, movement mechanics, and the materiality of the actor's body ...

in the park to observe the birds in their natural habitat. A survey carried out between 14 April and 30 September 2020 detected up to 73 different bird species in this nature park, including

Little egret The little egret (''Egretta garzetta'') is a species of small heron in the family Ardeidae. It is a white bird with a slender black beak, long black legs and, in the western race, yellow feet. As an aquatic bird, it feeds in shallow water and on ...

Common firecrest The common firecrest (''Regulus ignicapilla''), also known as the firecrest, is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family. It breeds in most of Temperateness, temperate Europe and northwestern Africa, and is partially bird migration, migr ...

s, European kingfishers,

Common moorhen The common moorhen (''Gallinula chloropus''), also known as the waterhen, is a bird species in the Rail (bird), rail family (Rallidae). It is distributed across many parts of the Old World, across Africa, Europe, and Asia. It lives around well-ve ...

Pallid swift The pallid swift (''Apus pallidus'') is a Swift (bird), swift (order Apodiformes). Swifts have very short legs which they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces. The genus name ''Apus'' is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a ty ...

Sedge warbler The sedge warbler (''Acrocephalus schoenobaenus'') is an Old World warbler in the genus ''Acrocephalus (bird), Acrocephalus''. It is a medium-sized warbler with a brown, streaked back and wings and a distinct pale supercilium. Sedge warblers are ...

European pied flycatcher The European pied flycatcher (''Ficedula hypoleuca'') is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. One of the four species of Western Palearctic black-and-white flycatchers, it bird hybrid, hybridises to a limited extent with th ...

Eurasian sparrowhawk The Eurasian sparrowhawk (''Accipiter nisus''), also known as the northern sparrowhawk or simply the sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Adult male Eurasian sparrowhawks have bluish grey upperparts and orange-barred ...

Scarlet ibis The scarlet ibis, sometimes called red ibis (''Eudocimus ruber''), is a species of ibis in the bird family Threskiornithidae. It inhabits tropical South America and part of the Caribbean. In form, it resembles most of the other twenty-seven ex ...

es or

European turtle dove The European turtle dove (''Streptopelia turtur'') is a threatened or vulnerable member of the bird family Columbidae, the doves and pigeons. It breeds over a wide area of the south western Palearctic including north Africa but migrates to north ...

s. A total of 142 birds were seen and recorded in this natural area. At one of the entrances to the park is a "dog play area" opened in 2010, which consists of a large metal enclosure where dogs can run and play freely.

Location and access

History

Description

Gallery

References

See also

Bibliography

Related articles

External links