Life Canal de Castilla

Environment

The Canal de Castilla is an unlined packed-earth watercourse. Consequently, with time and progressive disuse as a transportation route, a succession of fluvial and marsh ecosystems have regenerated around the canal, contrasting dramatically with the arid Castilian plain.

Three main biotopes are associated with the canal: fluvial, riparian and marsh. In addition to these three must are the surrounding biotopes, generally farmland, most of which is not irrigated.

The fluvial biotope is constituted by the part of the canal through which water circulates. Riparian forest appears at a number of points along the canal and is composed by black poplars, white poplars, willows, rosebushes, hawthorns, honeysuckles, etc., and many living creatures. The excellent physicochemical state of the water provides a home for a varied community of fish, together with other taxonomic groups like freshwater mussels. The fluvial thickets are home to more than 130 species of birds during the nesting period and harbour species as representative as the otter and other bioindicators of good water quality, like the southern water shrew.

Thousands of birds of many species take refuge in the groves and wetlands of the Canal during their migratory passage; many of these species are endangered.

The farmland around the Canal offers living conditions for animal communities that are highly specialised in steppe life, such as the Calandra lark (Melanocorypha calandra), skylark (Alauda arvensis), Montagu's harrier (Circus pygargus) and black-bellied sandgrouse (Pterocles orientalis). The great bustard (Otis tarda) is an emblematic species.

Many of the species that are highly endangered require this milieu for their conservation. The Canal de Castilla, as a linear system, has a special role in connecting areas that are dispersed over a distance.