Žemaitijos nacionalinis parkas

Lakes

There are 26 natural bigger and smaller lakes in the Park with the total area of 1.484,2 ha. The largest lakes (the lake of Plateliai, Ilgis and Beržoras) occupy approximately 90 % of the total area. The bottom structure of these lakes is very complex; there are islands in all of them (7 islands in the lake of Plateliai, 2 islands in the lake of Ilgis, 1 island in the lake of Beržoras). The most picturesque, clear and the deepest lake in Žemaitija region and the National park is the lake of Plateliai. Its area is 1.205 ha, the average depth is 10,5 m, the deepest place is 47 m, the avarege level above the sea level is 146,5 m. The length of the coast is approximately 31 kilometers.

There are lots of small lakes in the territory of the Park, 23 of them have the area less than 5 ha each; and another 10 natural water reseroirs have the area less than 1 ha each.

The lakes of Burgis and Luoka have vegetation of Chara spp. The lakes of Burgis, Burgalis and Skyplaičiai have lots of benthic vegetation of Chara spp. Acoording to the EU Directive on vegitations the above lakes may be defined as a hard oligo-mesotrophic waters with the benthic vegetation of the Chara spp.The lakes of Vaivadė (Petreikis), Burgis, Endriuškaičiai, especially their turfy bays are full of Magnopotamion and Hydrocharition. There are lots of natural nourishment in these lakes, they are natural eutrophic lakes with Magnopotamion or Hydrocharition-type vegetation. There are small lakes surrounded by marsh in the Park (Lestis, Piktežeris, Aklaežeris), thery are attributed to natural dystrophic lakes. There is almost no flora in them; the water is brown because of turf and humus accids.

Rivers

The biggest river of the National Park the Babrungas has its source from the lake of Plateliai; its length is 47,3 km, 10 km of them run through the territory of the Park. Though, the Uošna river is considered to be the longest on the territory of the Park (13,3 km of 16,6 km lay across the Park). Besides the mentioned rivers there are 32 rivulets , 17 of them of it run only across the territory of the Park. The total length of these rivultes is 103,5 km, approximately 30 rivulets have their source in the Park. The largest part of the rivers and rivulets of the National park (51%) have been reclaimed and straightened.

There are quite a few springs in the territory of the Park, some of them even have sacral meaning. Springs of Plokščiai (3,2 ha) and Pilelis (2,4 ha) are natural monuments. Visitors can easily reach the springs of St.John and Pilelis.