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Non-protected areas
Vistulan cut-offs
The cut-offs (or oxbow lakes) are rather small bodies of standing water, formed when a meander of a river is cut off from the main channel. Usually unused for any industrial purposes, they become refuges governed by the laws of nature, creating unique arrangements of rare and protected aquatic and wetland plants. In the upper Vistula valley there are several oxbow lakes situtated on both sides of the river. They are rather small and have a characteristic crescent-like shape. Some of them originated as a result of river regulation - straightening out the Vistula channel.
As far as wildlife and landscape are concerned, the most interesting cut-offs are situated in Chropań (the rural commune of O¶więcim), O¶więcim-Brzezinka (Stare Wi¶lisko), along a cycle path running by the Vistula in Brzeszcze, in Miejsce (Stara Wisła - the Old Vistula, north of Spytkowice) and near Kłokoczyn (the border of the communes of Czernichów and Brzezica). While visiting them, it is worth paying attention to aquatic plants, as many of them are real rarities in the Polish flora.
Large, often reddish rosettes floating on the water surface are the water chestnut, a protected plant, regarded endangered in Poland. It has returned here in recent years thanks to efforts of naturalists (more on the subject under the headword: the water chestnut).
Small, yellow and green leaves floating on the water surface belong to the floating watermoss - a protected plant which is the only representative of aquatic ferns in Poland. Much more common and easier to notice because of its large leaves and yellow flowers, is the yellow water-lily. The species is under partial protection and it occurs in great abundance in oxbow lakes. Similar, though much smaller leaves belong to the floating heart - a protected plant threatened with extinction. Its only oxbow lake location is in Miejsce; all others are on ponds. Another floristic "gem" of Vistulan cut-offs is Stratiotes aloides the water soldier - an aquatic plant whose leaves are similar to aloe leaves (although not as fleshy). One of the last locations in the region where the water soldier occurs is in an oxbow lake near Kłokoczyn.
Cut offs are not just about plants. Equally high species diversity may be found here among amphibians and a bit lower - among birds, as the latter prefer water bodies that are bigger and richer in food. In spite of that, one can meet here Fulica atra the Coot, Gallinula chloropus the Common Moorhen, Rallus aquaticus the Water Rail and even the Grebe.
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