Guide
Domaniç-Kaşalıç Nature Conservation Area is protected under the strictest of the categories and the rules follow from that: the Directorate General of Nature Conservation and National Parks states that the site is not suitable for picnicking or for tent or caravan camping, while walking and nature photography are possible. Capacity is given as one visitor and one vehicle, and there are no facilities on site. The category itself is defined on the page as a place set aside solely for science and education, holding rare, threatened or vanishing ecosystems, species and outstanding natural formations that must be absolutely protected.
The area was declared on 5 February 1991 at 134 hectares, recorded more precisely as 133.98. It lies in Domaniç district of Kütahya province in the inner Aegean, surrounded by steppe but carrying, to a large degree, the character of Black Sea forest. What is protected is an undisturbed example of mixed beech and black pine forest at its optimum range, and individual beeches and black pines in it have the dimensions of monumental trees.
Oak, aspen, laurel-leaved rock rose and Euphorbia macroclada grow with them. The mammal list is unusually strong for an area this size: brown bear, wildcat, lynx, fox, jackal, wolf, stone marten, marbled polecat, badger, wild boar and Caucasian squirrel. The Pazaralan stream runs along the southern boundary, and seasonal streams and natural springs occur inside the area.
Documentation is still being assembled. The final report of a project to develop an inventory, research and monitoring programme for the area's resources was prepared in 2022 and submitted for ministerial approval, and work on a management plan began the same year. The site is about 90 kilometres from Kütahya city; leaving Domaniç towards Bursa, it lies on the left at the fifth kilometre.
- Designated
- 5.02.1991
