Paul de Toirões

Formerly known as Quinta de Santa Margarida, Paul de Toirões, 18 minutes away from the village Malhada Sorda, in Almeida, is the most recent area to be managed by Rewilding Portugal.

Once a mining operation, now ceased almost a decade ago, it has one of the largest areas of water in the entire Côa Valley, and unlike what happens in dams and reservoirs in the region, this water is distributed in a wide variety of environments such as ponds, channels, permanent and temporary ponds, interconnected by seasonally flooded wetlands and full of aquatic and riparian vegetation growing on the former mining areas of tungsten and aggregates.

Around all this water, a young but extensive forest occupies the flat ground, composed mainly of black oak, holm oak (Quercus rotundifolia), Pyrenean Oak (Quercus pyrenaica) and cypress. This area is already of great importance for biodiversity, with rich communities of aquatic flora and fauna, including the beautiful stripe-necked terrapin and the black stork, which regularly feed and take refuge here.

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