The natural reserve "Balta Nera" – Socol

Balta Nera – Dunăre is a nationally protected area corresponding to the IUCN category IV (mixed natural reserve), located in Caraș-Severin County, on the administrative territory of the Socol commune.

The natural area, covering 10 hectares, is situated at the western extremity of Caraș-Severin County, at the foothills of the Locvei Mountains (a mountain group in the Banat Mountains belonging to the Western Carpathians), at the confluence of the Nera River into the Danube, in the Danube Gorge (a geographical region on the northern bank of the Danube). The natural reserve, included in the Iron Gates Natural Park, was declared a protected area through Law No. 5 of March 6, 2000 (approving the National Land Management Plan – Section III – protected areas) and represents the confluence area of the Nera River with the Danube (water bodies, lakes, marshes, peat bogs, with shrubs, reed beds, and rushes) with flora and fauna specific to wetland areas.

The reserve has various types of habitats, including oligotrophic standing waters, eutrophic lakes with a significant content of dissolved minerals in the water, areas covered with bulrush and reed, and water with abundant vegetation developed on the lake bottom. The natural area provides food and living conditions for several species of birds (migratory, passage, or sedentary), mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and fish.

The flora of the natural reserve consists mostly of hydrophilic and hygrophilic vegetation with tree species such as white poplar (Populus alba), white willow (Salix alba), and purple willow (Salix purpurea). Herbaceous plants include floating fern (Salvinia natans), four-leaf clover (Marsilea quadrifolia), yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus), water lily (Butomus umbellatus), as well as reeds, bulrush, and sedges.

Birds: marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus), little egret (Egretta garzetta), pygmy cormorant (Phalocrocorax pygmeus), little bittern (Ixobrychus minutus), Eurasian bittern (Botaurus stellaris), great egret (Egretta alba), barn owl (Tyto alba, a species that hunts rodents), or common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis);

Mammals: gray wolf (Canis lupus), wild boar (Sus scrofa), red fox (Vulpes vulpes crucigera), European otter (Lutra lutra), and European ground squirrel (Spermophilus citellus);

Amphibians and reptiles: European green toad (Bufo viridis), European tree frog (Hyla arborea), common toad (Bufo bufo), European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina), European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis), Aesculapian snake (Elaphe longissima), and dice snake (Natrix tessellata);

Fish: weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis), asp (Aspius aspius), European chub (Umbra krameri, a predatory fish species), gudgeon (Gobio kessleri), and spined loach (Cobitis elongata).