Białowieża National Park in Poland

Hi all,

I'm a little tired from National Mourning, so I post some beautiful photos and videos of Bialowieza. Why ? Because I do not whant any more to participate in depression. Mourning-yes, but what we see in Polish media, radios and TV it's nothing more than national depression.

So, just to remember how Poland is beautiful - I present Białowieża. Maybe some of You have more photos in private collections ? If so, post it here. This region is definitely worth to see.

Very beautiful! Thanks for posting these pictures, Dani.

I agree completely :)


Thanks for that, looks wonderful.


Shoot me now... :p

Again, thanks.

Great photos! I've been slowly adding new photos of Kraków (moved here three weeks ago) - you can check them out here: picasaweb.google.com/lucas.poznanski/Poland#

Sticking to the nature theme however, here's a gallery of photos illustrating Canada's wilderness: picasaweb.google.com/lucas.poznanski/TheGreatOutdoors#

:)

Awesome photos Lukasz. Both galleries are great.

Hey thanks Dani. Incidentally this is the second time I've plugged my photos on PF. :P If anyone lives in Kraków and feels like running around town on a sunny day with our cameras, please PM me. :)

Welcome to Groundhog Day: When you know the news before switching on the telly, when you know it's going to be nothing but crappy emotional songs on the radio.

This Mourning feels more like something forced upon us, rather than be followed by choice.

And now we have panic buying because the shops will be closed at the weekend.

And when the official mourning finally stops, the politics will start...

I was ready to go abroad for a week when the Queen mum died, but it really wasnt that bad..Hardly anything on the TV and virtually nothing on the radio..


We get that here every Christmas and the shops only close one day!

I hear they have imposed an alcohol ban until Monday?

In Warsaw tomorrow, in Krakow on Sunday.

As far as I know only during and immediately after the ceremonies. But the bans are usually quite vaguely worded and it's up to bar owners to interpret them.

Merged: Białowieża National Park

I'm contemplating making a trip there in a couple of months - anyone been?

Many times, Delph. I used to live in Hajnówka and work in Białowieża. I'm off to work now, but I'll be glad to reply later if you have specific questions.

Well, I have a mountain of them ;)

Most important question though - how are the mosquitoes in late spring/summer?

Not too bad in late spring if it's not wet, but summer is another thing. If the bison is king of the forest, the mozzie is undoubtedly the queen (only females bite). The southern part of the forest is particularly bad, which is a shame as there's a great little train that goes from Hajnówka to Topiło, where there's a man-made logging reservoir.

hajnowka.pl/turystyka-1/169-kolejka-waskotorowa.html

When I go I wear a long-sleeved shirt, a hat and plenty of repellent.

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Delph might be ok since he's in PL - the real horror is when you come back after a period away and the insects really go for you (or you just feel it more perhaps due to lack of natural antihistamine).

Repellent is still a good idea, though as any mushroomer knows, the little devils can get under your clothes.

To be honest, I've never found a repellent that really does the job. They are used to deet now, clever feckers. At home we use a geranium-based repellent, which does seem to reduce mozzie numbers, but I don't think you're supposed to put it on your skin. Having said that, last summer I saw a grand total of one mosquito in our place. Very strange.

[moved from]
It's like the destruction of Białowieża. The State Forestry Service is incredibly wealthy, but because of they way they operate, they have a vested interest in cutting as much wood as possible. They see those big, thick, unspoiled trees and see złoty in their bank accounts.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world wonders why the hell Poland would cut down such a valuable resource.

And the Forestry Service was thought up and created by PiS, right? They've been doing that for years, but those who should've known better turned a blind eye in scam-friendly PO Poland. They knew who was in power and what side their

bread was buttered on.

It's certainly a PiS character that thought up the idea to reverse the PO-era restrictions and go all in when it comes to destroying Białowieża.

LP has over 2 billion złoty in the bank. They could provide every forester in Białowieża with comfortable salaries for the next 100 years and leave the forest alone, but you know, PiS just need to cut the place to shreds.

If the plan was merely to get rid of diseased trees, perhaps it could be argued. But chopping down healthy forest for the sake of the personal profit of the foresters is disgusting.

That is a fact delph.
Costa Rica comes to mind when I saw what a stupid thing Poland was doing.
Costa Rica put it up for vote to the people.
We can either industrialize our country or keep our natural rainforests and charge tourist to tour them.
The vote was overwhelming and they kept the permanent destruction of the rainforests for eternity happening.
I think it is like $35 dollars a day to enter the rainforests there now and you must stay on the trails to see wild monkeys, exotic parrots and exotic vegetation.

Even at 200 tourists per day ads up to $7000 a day forever which is much more then the timber is worth that can't be replaced.

They are way money ahead and have preserved something that could never be replaced.
They have tours with some paths stretching twenty plus miles through the rainforests. Absolutely breath taking.
Poland is making a huge mistake by destroying something that can't be replaced in three life times.


Greed is the word delph.

Sounds like more KODesque hysteria, but makes great eye-cathing headlines. Exactly how many cubic metres of healthy timber is being cut down for somone's ( adn whose?) personal profit and whence do you derive that data?

Another day, another "good change", this time in the field of wind power.

It effectively means that windmills cannot be built in 99.9% of Poland due to the provisions in their law. Furthermore, despite the Supreme Court giving the opinion that the law is incompatible with EU law and is potentially unconstitutional, the law is due to come into force within 14 days instead of the year that was requested. The reason is simple - 14 days will not be long enough for the EU to give a negative opinion on the matter.

Furthermore, taxation (!) on windmills will increase by nearly 50% over the 25 year lifespan.

Effectively, PiS are protecting the coal industry instead of promoting cleaner energy - which means that Poles will continue to suffer appalling health problems as a result of the poor air quality. Nevermind, coal miners still have significant pensions paid for by the rest of us.

You still haven't provided details of the alleged "destruction of Białowieża". Or do you just make preposterous claims unbacked by evidence and then go your merry way hoping no-one will notice.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/03/poland-europe-bialowieza-forest-eu

There you are. 43% of the planned felling is of trees that aren't diseased.

Polonius, can you really not see the madness in attacking Białowieża? It's such a pearl in Poland and there's nothing comparable in most of Europe - chopping down 200 year old trees there just for the sake of filling the pockets of local foresters is absolute madness.

Do you realise that felling has taken place since forever under different occupations and governments. In the III RP in the 1990s it was at roughly the same level as in the PRL 1980s -- about 150,000 cubic metres a year. That level was slightly decreased in 2000-2008 to about 125,000 m³ per annuum.

Do you know what the current felling plan is? Without such comparative data it's all dilletantish rabble-rousing. The Guardian has likely also succumbed to the KOD-stoked hysteria. "Poles destroy Europe's last virgin forest" makes a good read. Whether it's true or not -- who cares? The point is to sell papers and for the PiS-baiting opposition to take a another swipe at the government. That's all that really counts, The pretext is secondary, because one can always be found.

I doubt that article would make much impact on sales. Website hits maybe, however they aren't exactly short of those, being one of the most visited news websites in the world.


I don't think any of us could possibly disagree with that. Why are the PiS regime hell-bent on chopping the forest down?

The plan is to go from 48,000 cubic metres to 180,000 cubic metres. A huge increase.


By your numbers then, PiS want to fell more than the PRL did.


From what I gather, it's related to Podlasie politics. Under PO, the plan was to eventually turn the entire forest into a national park to protect it. One of the failings of PO was to push it through (they backed off under heavy pressure from LP) - and PiS made a huge fuss out of how PO didn't care about the livelihoods of local communities there and how they would permit much more logging.

Either way, there really is absolutely no reason to touch it. LP is rich in cash, and if it gets turned into a National Park (with the correspondingly lower salaries) - LP could easily subsidise their wages to make up for it.

Ideologically, foresters also want to cut everything in sight because they want to manage it, even though Białowieża should be left as a wilderness to protect the most valuable part. Let's not forget that there's also a huge impact on local animal populations too.

Why were the prte-WW2 governments, PZPR, SLD, AWS, PO and other regimes bent on chopping Białowieża down?

They weren't, Po and well you know it. As shown to you above the logging was always at a sustainable level. Now the PiS regime, presumably as part of Kaczyński's plan to destroy Poland have massively increased the logging in Poland's principle National Park.

Just because the Platform regime tried to rob Poland blind, and did a pretty good job of it for 8 years, does not mean that others are only out to destroy, Logging is always paired with woodland management including aforestation and reforestation.