Parcul Natural Defileul Mureșului Superior

Parcul Natural Defileul Mureșului Superior is a protected area of national interest, classified under IUCN Category V, located in eastern Transylvania, in the north-eastern part of Mureș County. The protected area covers 9,156 hectares, as established by Government Decision no. 1143 of 18 September 2007, and overlaps the administrative territories of the communes of Stânceni, Lunca Bradului, Răstolița and Deda. It fully encompasses the Defileul Deda-Toplița nature reserve, a gorge approximately 33 km long that forms the boundary between the Munții Călimani and the Munții Gurghiu. The park is traversed by national road DN15, which connects the municipality of Toplița in Harghita County to the town of Reghin. The relief is dominated by volcanic rocks — predominantly andesites, but also rhyolites and basalts — with outcrops of rocky faces, ridges, peaks and characteristic rock towers. Altitudes range between 446 and 1,682 m within the associated avifaunal protection area. The vegetation includes mixed forests of beech, Norway spruce and silver fir, deciduous forests with ash, hornbeam, birch and elm, as well as secondary pastures and hay meadows. The park overlaps the Natura 2000 site ROSCI0019 Călimani-Gurghiu and the special avifaunal protection area RO021. The fauna includes protected species such as the pygmy owl, the black-crowned night heron, the red-backed shrike and the Eurasian otter, as well as 15 rare plant species, among them Arnica montana and Angelica palustris.