Iñurritza Protected Biotope

Located in the surroundings of Zarautz urban area, the Iñurritza Protected Biotope constitutes the widest and best preserved dune field on the coast of Basque Autonomous Region. This natural area stretches between the north part of the beach and the left bank of Iñurritza Estuary. It covers an area of 177,200 square metres, being most of them occupied by the Zarautz Golf Club's facilities.

Category: Protected Biotopes

Municipalities:

Gipuzkoa: Zarautz.

Information:

Zarautz Tourism Office
Phone: 943 830 990
Fax: 943 835 628
E-mail: turismoa@zarautz.org

Arkamurka Nature Group
Phone: 943 130 497 - 676 066 696 (mobile phone)

Services:

As it is situated in a humanised environment, Iñurritza is a periurban area that possesses natural elements of great interest. Characterised by a dune landscape, the space is also associated to other typical coast environments, such as cliffs or rocky coastline, as well as the marshes and the estuary connected to the mouth of the irrigation channel of Inurritza.

A newly built footbridge is going to allow us to visit the dunes that, together with the marshes and cliffs, make this place specially attractive. It is a meeting point for species of flora and fauna with various requirements, resulting in a patchwork of specialised and interconnected communities.

Fauna

This dune field welcomes many bird species, especially during their migratory movements.

The beach and the sandy area are used by wading birds. The Mollarri shore is a place where cormorants and seagulls perch; while the marsh areas colonised by reedbeds are a perfect habitat for marsh warblers, a group of birds that has suffered a reduction of its distribution and abundance in the last decades.

Flora

Mobile and fixed dune systems shape the dune landscape, forming a space of great biological and geological significance.

The sandy substratum and high salinity that create difficult life conditions make this dune space be associated with a specific type of flora called psammophilous flora, consisting of species arranged in bands in accordance with the progressive reduction of the wind and salt action.

These communities are formed by endemic plant species or of reduced distribution, even with unique populations in the Basque Autonomous Region. This is the case of the Medicago marina and Galium arenarium, endemic species of the Basque coasts and Aquitaine; and of the Alyssum loiseleurii, endemic of the coasts of the Cantabrian Sea and southwestern France.

The rocky coast that stretches between the Iñurritza and Oria Estuaries including the Mollarri shore, also keeps an associated flora adapted to the hard conditions resulting from being exposed to the swell.

Besides, small marsh areas have survived until present times, due to the mouth of Iñurritza, despite the urban and agricultural pressure. Here, we encounter flora species that result strange in the environment of the Basque Country. This is the case of the Salicornia dolichostachya, common in saline areas.