Police - kanały Protected Area: Industrial Heritage and Subterranean Ecological Refuges in Northern Poland

The site is primarily known for its population of hibernating bats using former industrial underground infrastructure. The barbastelle and the greater mouse-eared bat are the two protected bat species at the core of this site's identity. What makes Police, kanały distinctive is the unusual combination of industrial heritage and ecological function: a relic of wartime-era synthetic fuel production has become a critical regional refuge for cave-dwelling bat species on the flat coastal lowlands of northwestern Poland.

The protected area derives directly from the industrial history of the site. The underground canals were originally constructed as part of a German synthetic gasoline factory that operated in what is now the town of Police, a legacy of large-scale fuel production efforts during the mid-twentieth century.

After the war and the eventual decline of industrial use, the canal network was abandoned, and over the subsequent decades its stable underground microclimate attracted bat colonies. Recognition of the site's ecological importance came through Poland's accession to the European Union's Natura 2000 framework, and Police – kanały was formally designated as a site of Community importance in 2008, securing legal protection for the bat hibernation habitat that had developed within the former industrial infrastructure.

The protected area is situated on the Równina Wkrzańska, part of the broader lowland belt that characterizes northwestern Poland close to the German border. The terrain is predominantly flat, with no notable elevation changes, reflecting the glacial and post-glacial sedimentary origins of the West Pomeranian plains.

Above ground, the area does not present dramatic scenery. The defining landscape feature is hidden: a network of underground tunnels and canals extending roughly four kilometers, built originally for industrial purposes and now embedded within a quiet urban-adjacent setting. The proximity of the site to the Oder estuary and the Szczecin Lagoon places it within a transitional zone between terrestrial lowlands and the large estuarine systems of the southern Baltic coast.

Ecologically, Police – kanały is a habitat-driven rather than landscape-driven site. Its nature is defined by a very specific microhabitat: dark underground passages with stable temperature and humidity that closely resemble natural caves despite their artificial origin.

This subterranean environment supports hibernating bat populations that depend on cool, stable, and undisturbed winter roosts. While the surrounding lowland plain hosts typical West Pomeranian terrestrial habitats, the heart of the site's ecological identity lies beneath the surface, in a man-made but ecologically functional refuge.

Two bat species are the focus of conservation interest at Police – kanały: the western barbastelle (Barbastella barbastellus) and the greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis). Both species hibernate in the underground canal system during winter, and the site's role as a hibernation refuge is the principal reason for its Natura 2000 designation.

The scale of bat usage has earned the site recognition as the largest bat hibernation area in the West Pomerania region, making it regionally important for bat conservation in northwestern Poland.

Police – kanały is protected under the European Natura 2000 network as a site of Community importance, a designation that obliges Poland to maintain the favorable conservation status of the habitat types and species for which it was listed. The site was formally established in 2008.

Its conservation significance rests on the preservation of the underground canal network as a functional hibernation habitat for bats. Protecting this former industrial infrastructure is essential because the regional supply of natural caves is extremely limited on the flat coastal lowlands of West Pomerania, and sites like Police – kanały compensate for that scarcity by providing a stable, dark, and undisturbed refuge during the critical winter months.

The site's identity is inseparable from the broader history of Police, a town shaped by heavy industry along the lower Oder. The underground canals preserved and protected at Police – kanały are material remnants of a German synthetic gasoline factory from a period when large-scale chemical and fuel production defined the local economy.

This industrial heritage gives the site a distinctive dual character. What was once a piece of wartime-era industrial infrastructure has, through abandonment and ecological succession, become a place of natural heritage value, illustrating how post-industrial sites can acquire unexpected conservation importance on the Polish lowlands.

Police – kanały stands out as one of the more unusual Natura 2000 sites in Poland because its core protected feature is not a forest, wetland, or coast, but a four-kilometer network of former industrial underground canals.

The site is recognized as the largest bat hibernation area in West Pomerania, and its conservation status directly protects the barbastelle and the greater mouse-eared bat during the winter season. Its location within the town of Police places a regionally significant bat refuge directly inside an urban administrative boundary.

The site's ecological value is seasonal rather than scenic, with its importance concentrated in the winter hibernation period, when bats occupy the underground canals and are most sensitive to disturbance. Late autumn through early spring is therefore the most ecologically significant window for the site, although the narrow underground infrastructure and the bat-protection focus mean that visits are primarily a matter of conservation awareness rather than traditional sightseeing.