Rezerwat przyrody "Jezioro Kamień". Jedno z jezior lobeliowych w okolicy Miastka.

A living relic of the Ice Age

Lobelian lakes take their name from the great lobelia (Lobelia dortmanna), a small rosette plant that carpets shallow sandy lake beds in clean, cold, low-nutrient water. The species, along with the spiny quillwort Isoetes lacustris and the floating water-plantain Luronium natans, are the signature community of these lakes—botanical survivors left behind by the retreating glaciers. The Pomorskie regional guide lists exactly this trio as the protected treasures of Jezioro Kamień, the characteristic plants that make a lobelian lake worth conserving.↗

Kamień is a textbook example of its kind: a long, narrow ribbon lake (rynkowe jezioro) ringed by beech-and-oak forest. The water surface covers roughly half a square kilometre, stretching about 1.2 km in length and 0.4 km across, and plunging to a maximum depth of 15.2 metres. It is a flowing lake rather than an isolated pond—the river Brda runs right through it—and the reserve also safeguards a fragment of the transitional mire that edges the shoreline.↗↗

The headwaters of the Brda

Kamień does not stand alone. Together with the neighbouring lake reserves of Smołowe and Orle, it forms a small constellation of protected water bodies sitting on the source plateau of the Brda river—the same Brda that later winds down through the heart of Bydgoszcz. The closest settlements to the reserve are Lubkowo and Przęsin, some way out in the forest district east of Miastko.↗↗

This cluster carries weight beyond its own boundaries. The reserve falls within the Natura 2000 habitat site "Miasteckie Jeziora Lobeliowe" (the Miastko lobelian lakes) and the protected landscape covering the Brda and Wieprza source area east of Miastko, and it operates under active protection following the management plan drawn up in 2016.↗↗

Visiting with the lake's fragility in mind

It is important to set expectations honestly: Jezioro Kamień is a strict nature reserve and, as the regional tourism guide states plainly, it is not opened for sightseeing ("rezerwat nie jest udostępniony"). There are no boardwalks, viewpoints or paid attractions, and the protection of the relict vegetation and the Brda's pristine headwaters comes first. A visitor one reviewer described simply found it "one of the more charming lobelian lakes near Miastko"—the kind of quiet reward the surrounding forest paths and lake district offer rather than a managed tourist stop.↗

The best way to appreciate the reserve is as part of a broader exploration of the Miastko lake country: a detour through the beech-and-oak woods near Przęsin and Lubkowo, where you sense the landscape that shelters these rare waters, and an understanding that you are looking at a habitat more precious for its scarcity than for any visitor experience. Treat the boundary of the protected zone with respect and the lake keeps its secrets intact.↗↗

If you want to learn more before you go, the Nadleśnictwo Miastko forest district (based at Pasieka near Miastko) and the Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Gdańsk are the authorities that manage and describe this reserve, and their materials give the clearest picture of its protected status and boundaries.