Dunes between Dźwirzyno and Grzybowo Nature Reserve

West of Kołobrzeg, between Dźwirzyno and Grzybowo, the beach shows a textbook cross-section of the Baltic coast in a small space: pale, shifting white dunes, then lower grey dunes covered in grassland, and beyond them pine forest on the dunes. This sequence, increasingly rare in West Pomerania, is protected by a 14.20 ha nature reserve. It is home to species you would not expect on an ordinary beach, including the creeping lady's-tresses orchid.

About the reserve

The "Dunes between Dźwirzyno and Grzybowo" reserve was established on 8 July 2017 by order of the Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Szczecin. It lies in Kołobrzeg municipality on State Treasury land and reaches from the middle of the beach to the forest behind the coast; to the south it borders woodland managed by the Szczecin Maritime Office. The whole area is under active protection and lies within the Natura 2000 sites "Trzebiatów-Kołobrzeg Coastal Belt" and "Trzebiatów Coast". In July 2026 the regional directorate adopted a conservation plan for the reserve.

What you will see

• White dunes – shifting ridges of sand with marram and lyme grass, right by the beach.
• Grey dunes – lower, denser grassland with dwarf everlasting and sheep's-bit; where they meet the white dunes, heath with cushions of black crowberry develops.
• Forest on the dunes – woodland covers about 60% of the reserve and forms the third band of vegetation as you move inland from the sea.

The reserve's flora includes 15 legally protected species, two of which – creeping lady's-tresses and Swedish whitebeam – are strictly protected and classed as endangered in Poland. Stag's-horn clubmoss and one-flowered wintergreen grow here too. Among the valuable invertebrates the conservation plan lists the sand hopper, a tiny crustacean jumping on damp sand, and the blue-winged grasshopper.

Did you know: the enemy in the rose bushes

The greatest threat to the reserve is people – litter and trampling. But the conservation plan also names plant enemies: the invasive Japanese rose, which has to be cut out roots and all, and violet and sharp-leaf willows, once planted to stabilise the dunes and now too invasive. Tree and shrub seedlings are also removed from the grey dunes so the grassland can regenerate.

Tripto tip

The conservation plan designates no areas in the reserve for tourism or recreation – you see the dunes from the beach and from the marked beach accesses, whose routes were set by an order of 30 August 2018. Do not walk on the dunes, cross fences or take shortcuts across the grassland, and take your rubbish with you. The best way is to walk along the water's edge between Dźwirzyno and Grzybowo – from the shoreline you can see the successive bands of vegetation most clearly. The beach is free and open all year, but after winter storms the shore and accesses can be undercut, so take care near the dune edges.