New Israel Nature Reserve to be Created Near Rehovot

"Four new nature reserves will be created and the legal process that has brought them under the protection of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority will be completed, Minister of Interior Avraham Poraz announced this week, HA'ARETZ reported. The new reserves will supplement seventeen other locales declared nature reserves in 2003.

The largest of the four new reserves is Susita, south west of the Golan Heights. Susita covers an area of 5,400 dunams and touts a large variety of flora and fauna, including wolves and deer.

Another large reserve is situated along the Sorek River, close to Moshav Ramat Raziel and near the city of Rehovot in the middle of Israel's coastline. Ramat Raziel and the reserve carried out a limited land exchange, in which the moshav received land from the reserve for residential purposes and, in return, surrendered 70 dunams to the reserve.

The Avuka reserve in the Beit She'an valley is particularly unique as it contains a salt marsh: soil that becomes saline when the water running through it evaporates or permeates into the earth. Salt marsh plants, indigenous to the salty environment, flourish on the reserve. Unfortunately, many of the salt marshes along the Beit She'an valley and the Arava have been damaged over the past few years as a result of construction and agriculture projects.

The last of the four new reserves is the Adulam forest in the Lachish region in Israel's south, close to the communities of Zafririm, Nehusha and Aderet."

Source: Four New Nature Reserves Created. NCLCI.Org (15 January 2005) [FullText]