The Dutayeon valley is located in a tributary to Suipcheon in Geonsol-ri, Bangsan-myeon, Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do, the northernmost area of the civilian-regulated zone; also, it is the lower reach of Biya-ri and Satae-ri in Dong-myun. Abundant are animals and plants, including red-bellied frogs, lenoks, and golden eagles, which are hard to find in other places, so that surviving natural lives can be seen at a glance. Running water, which is not so much but always cool, and beautiful and non-polluted surrounding mountains make there the largest habitat in Korea of lenok, the natural monument. Lenok lives only in the water of the first grade, temperature of which doesn't go up over 20¡ÆC in summer. The surface of the Dutayeon valley is not exposed direct to the sun and so given such natural environment.

Habitat of Lenok

Lenok, which belongs to the polar trout family, is a large-sized species that is 70~100 centimeters long, among freshwater fishes. The temperature of its water, which is deep, clean, and not polluted, doesn't go up over 20'C even in mid-summer. There is a deep part where adult fishes can hide themselves, pass the winter, and use as a spawning ground by its gently-flowing water and shingles. So it is the good place for lenok, which requires the environment condition that water has a oxygen content of 10ppm, to live in. Lenok is not an endemic species but rare one, and this Jeongamsa valley, together with Bongwa-gun in Gyeongbuk, is the southernmost tip in the world where lenok inhabits.

For this reason, the habitat, together with surrounding forests, is protected to prevent its original species from being exterminated. Lenok inhabits only some places of Gangwon-do in Korea including Myeonggae-ri, Nae-myeon in Hongcheon, Jindongcheon in Inje, and Dutayeon in Yanggu; among the places Myeonggae-ri in Hongcheon designated it as the 67th monument of the province to protect. It was designated as a specific protection fish by the Ministry of Environment January in 1996, so that no one can catch, capture, process, or circulate it without permission.

Habitat of the Natural Monument, Golden Eagles

Golden eagle, both sexes of which are identical with each other, is a bird, whose whole body is dark brown with a suggestion of black. It has a head with exposed black skin, a neck with gray-brown stripes, and the basal part of a beak and feet which are gray with a suggestion of green. It is about 102-112 centimeters long. It is distributed mostly in the temperate regions, the Mediterranean, grasslands, wastelands, alpine cold latitudes, and the tundra area and also inhabits Dutayeon. It was designated as the 243rd natural monument to protect.