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Bieszczady Mts. - short description
The excursion is in the Bieszczady Mountains (a range within Carpathians) with Bieszczady National Park. The total area is about 500 km2. The Bieszczady National Park (BNP) was founded in 1973 and is situated on three hundred kilometres southeast of Cracow (Krakow). The park measures about 270 km2 and borders Slovakia and the Ukraine. In 1993 an area of about 1500 km2 was declared a biosphere reserve "Eastern Carpathians". The National Park is within this biosphere reserve and serves as a central zone, which is in 75% strictly protected.
Long parallel ridges are typical of the Bieszczady Mountains landscape. BNP covers higher parts of the Bieszczady Mountains, with the highest peak, Tarnica, at 1346 m a.s.l. The lowest elevations lie at 450 m a.s.l. outside BNP.The climate is mountainous with relatively warm summers and severe winters. The average annual air temperature is 4,9 °C; in summer usually vary between 15-25 °C, and in winter between 0 °C and -10 °C, although sometimes might drop to -30 °C. Annual precipitation is 800-1200 mm. Snow cover persist for 4-5 months (from November to March). Usually, in the middle of winter the snow lays 30 to 60 centimetres deep in the valleys and 100-150 cm at tops. 
The animal life and vegetation in Bieszczady is very abundant compared to other parts of Europe. About 80% of the study area is covered by forest. Beech dominate, and fir, spruce, grey alder, and sycamore are important. Forest has natural character and stands of virgin forest are not rare. Areas above 1150 m a.s.l. are covered by subalpine meadows, called in Polish "Polonina", with blue berries and variety of herbs and grasses.
Almost complete original fauna still occupy the area; next to wolves, you can find lynxes, bears, wild cats, otters, beavers, red deer, roe deer, wild boars, wisents, elks, golden eagles, ravens, eagle owls and ural owls.History has had its impact on the nature of this area. Once humans relatively densely populated it, but after the Second World War all the inhabitants left the area. Some ruins of churches and other buildings still remind us of this period. At present humans (5 persons/km2) still sparsely populate the area. The main economy outside the BNP is forestry. There is very limited grazing of sheep, cattle, goats and horses. Many large predators live within the area, Bieszczady are the home of the Carpathian wolf population in Poland. |
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