A coastal wetland bird protection area along the Szczecin Lagoon in northwestern Poland.
Łąki Skoszewskie
Łąki Skoszewskie is a Natura 2000 Special Protection Area for birds in northwestern Poland, situated in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship along the eastern shore of the Szczecin Lagoon. The area is part of the Goleniów Plain and stretches between the localities of Gąsierzyno in the south and Skoszewo in the north, reaching eastward toward Żarnowo. It protects a mosaic of marshy meadows, drainage channels, alder and pine woodland, and small alder groves that together form one of the more important wetland bird habitats along the Polish Baltic coast.
Designated in 2004 under the EU Natura 2000 network with the site code PLB320003, the protected area covers roughly 9,083 hectares. Its formal purpose is to safeguard the breeding, resting, and feeding sites of waterbirds and wetland species that depend on the broad coastal-lowland interface between the Szczecin Lagoon and the inland meadows and forests. The site overlaps with a broader Natura 2000 habitat area, Ujście Odry i Zalew Szczeciński, and contains two nature reserves within or adjacent to its boundaries.
The area is recognized for the richness of its avifauna, supporting a wide range of waders, waterfowl, raptors, and passerines typical of large marshland and lagoon ecosystems. Beyond its ecological role, Łąki Skoszewskie illustrates the broader pattern of protection that has shaped Poland's coastal wetlands since the country's accession to the European Union, integrating site-based bird protection with landscape-scale habitat conservation along the Oder estuary.
