Bialowieza Forest - Podlaskie, Poland
Posted by: 
Noe1
N 52° 40.157 E 023° 51.420
34U E 693174 N 5839312
The last primaeval forest fragment of the Europe's woodlands, home to a large population of European bison.
Waymark Code: WMT7BX
Location: Podlaskie, Poland
Date Posted: 10/08/2016
Views: 23
The Bialowieza Forest wonderful for nature lovers. It offers a wide variety of birds, and lots of interesting pond life in the hollows. Most areas are viewed with a guide that are informative and answered all our questions. Be sure and not miss the vast herds of bison in the area. Mosquitoes are a concern so do not forget your bug repellent.
"Straddling the border between Poland and Belarus, this forest complex is situated in the transition between the boreal and temperate zone and represents the last remaining primary deciduous and mixed forest in the European lowland. It contains several tree species at the limit of their distribution: Norway spruce (Picea abies) reaches its southern limits of its northern range and the sessile oak (Quercus patraea) is here at its northeastern limit. It is composed of a mosaic of diverse forest communities, principally oak-lime-hornbeam and pine-spruce-oak.
Bialowieza was maintained as a royal hunting reserve until the 19th century. Though periodically subjected to high herbivore stocking rates, it escaped wide-scale felling and now represents primeval woodland. Following the establishment of the ‘National Park in Bialowieza’ in 1932 and its restoration in 1947, it was designated as biosphere reserve in 1977. The area is also designated as a transboundary World Heritage site and lies adjacent to the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Biosphere Reserve in Belarus.
About 100 people live within the biosphere reserve and some 3,000 people in villages close to the area (1997). Local communities benefit from tourism and use the area for bee keeping, charcoal production, animal breeding, hay meadows, game keeping as well as poaching. Some 96,000 tourists annually come to Bialowieza to visit the forest, the nature museum or the European bison (Bison bonasus) show enclosure (1997)."
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