KARKONOSZE S.C.I.
The Karkonosze National Park
The Karkonosze National Park is located in southwestern Poland and it is the natural border between Poland and the Czech Republic. The highest peak, Śnieżka, is 1603 meters above sea level. It is a unique region with a belt of Alpine vegetation. In 1959, the area was declared a National Park, and in 1992 included in UNESCO's biosphere reservation. The park covers over 55 square metres. It consists of the Karkonosze Mountains, the highest mountain range in the Sudetes. The Park also includes two separate enclaves: Szklarka Waterfall and Chojnik Mountain with a castle. The characteristic features of its landscape are the glacial kettles with boulders and ponds hidden inside. Weathered granite rocks shaped like mushrooms or maces can also be found on the mountainsides. The Karkonosze are sometimes called miniature Alps.
The Karkonosze Mountains are sometimes called miniature Alps and Śnieżka peak has the highest above-the-ground elevation of all Polish mountains. There is a chairlift on the Czech side of the Śnieżka Mountain. Another attractive peak in Karkonosze is Szrenica, with a chairlift from Szklarska Poręba and a mountain lodge located on its peak.
The landscape is completed with mountain lakes and rocks in unusual shapes, and names stimulating imagination, such as: Pilgrims, Horse Heads, Three Little Pigs, Raven Rocks. Near the Park border, there is the highest waterfall in the Polish part of Karkonosze - Kamieńczyk waterfall (27 m high), and in a separate Park enclave, Szklarka waterfall - one of the most recognizable and picturesque waterfalls in Poland. The characteristic features of the Karkonosze landscape are kotły (cirques), huge hollows carved by glaciers during the Ice Age and bordered with steep cliffs. There are six cirques on the Polish side of the range, the most spectacular being Kocioł Małego Stawu and Kocioł Wielkiego Stawu near Mt Śnieżka, and Śnieżne Kotły at the foot of Mt Wielki Szyszak.
The Karkonosze range is known for its harsh climate, with heavy rainfall (snow in winter) and highly variable weather, including strong winds and mists at any time of year. Statistically, the best chances of good weather are in January, February, May and September.
Thre are over a thousand species of plants and many forest species in the park (approx. 40 species of mammals, including otter, red deer, roe deer, fox, and 16 species of bats). One of the most interesting animals living here is mediterranean mouflon - introduced at the beginning of the twentieth century from Corsica and Sardinia. Large carnivores, such as wolves and lynx are also beginning to return to the area. Karkonosze National Park is also home to 90 species of birds such as: boreal owl, pygmy owl, the endangered black grouse, western capercaillie, ring ouzel, alpine accentor. The most numerous group of animals are the insects and other invertebrates.
Insect fauna of Karkonosze also includes endemic forms such as a subspecies of butterfly - geometer moth. there are also endemic plants here: musky saxifrage - a subspecies of furrowed saxifrage, bohemian bellflower, sudetic lousewort, hollowstem burnet saxifrage. Opening the park to the public caused a threat to the conservation of its nature. One of the biggest threats is a massive tourist traffic (about two million tourists visit annually the Karkonoski National Park). The main protective measures are: conservation of biological diversity at the gene, species and ecosystem level, monitoring of biotic and abiotic components of nature, renovation of tourism infrastructure, information and education.
Map of route and points of interest
Point 1: Vang wood church
The church originally built in Vang, Norway around 1200 AD. It was going to be destroyed. Instead it was bought by King Fredrick William IV of Prussia. He transported it to Karpacz in the Karkonosze mountains.
Point 2: The dead forrest
We can observe a damaged forrest. There was a ecological disaster in the 1980's caused by acid rain. The strong impact of the disaster on this region could be attributed to the topography, harsh mountain climate, relatively cold temperatures and strong winds.
Point 3: Glacial lake
Maly staw is a lake of glacial origin. It is found in the national Park at the bottom of the cirque, on the southern slope of the Smogornia mountain, one kilometer south of Wielki Staw. It is the second biggest lake in the park.
Geological Structure of The Karkonosze Mountains
The Karkonosze Mountains, just like most mountain ranges, are different in their north and west part. Their northern end constitutes a distinctive wall with characteristic steep slopes, while in the south the Czech part presents a levelling structure of gradually moving upwards layers turning into higher and higher mountain crests.
Regarding geological structure The Karkonosze Mountains are a part of The Karkonoski-Izerski mountain block. From the west side forming The Plateau at Śnieżka in the east. Śnieżka itself is made mainly of metamorphic hornfelses, while the rest of eastern crest is built of Prterozoic gneisses, mica slates, granite-gneisses, chlorites, quartz and granite conglomerates as well as greywacke at the bottom. The present configuration of The Karkonosze Mountains results from Variscian tectonic movements which occurred about 300 million years ago with the period of erosion and denudation to follow. Next the central mountain massive was lifted again in the period of Tertiary Alpine orogenesis. As the result of tectonic movements, with erosion and denudation periods to come later, The Karkonosze Mountains were finally formed with their characteristic broad crest dominated by the domes of distinctive peaks.
However, the most attractive elements of The Karkonosze surface sculpture were created in the period of intensive erosion during glaciations (Pleistocene) and after the continental glacier receded. Postglacial kettles with steep rocky walls are the result of these processes with taluses, alluvial cones, ground, lateral and terminal moraines, postglacial ponds and lakes situated in Kocioł Wielkiego Stawu[Great Pond Kettle], Kocioł Małego Stawu [Small Pond Kettle], Wielki Śnieżny Kocioł[Great Snowy Kettle]. High mountainous, almost polar climate and weathering resulted in the formation of numerous rocks presenting fantastic shapes and spread all over The Karkonosze Mountains like: Pielgrzymy [The Pilgrims], Słonecznik [The Sunflower], Paciorki [Beads], Twarożnik [Cottage Cheese], Trzy Świnki [Three Pigs], Końskie Łby [Horse Heads] or Śląskie Kamienie [The Silesian Stones].
A characteristic feature of some rocks in The Karkonosze are the, so called, weathering kettles.
An example of protection of endangered species of trees and plants
The Living Gene Bank in Jagniątków
Their aim is:
- Recreate and preserve the biodiversity of species of the Karkonosze flora at species and genetic level.
- Protection of rare, geo-botanically distinct plant species, in particular endemics and post- glacial relics.
- Maintaining the native plant ecotypes as a base for the restoration of already distorted habitats.
- Securing
and increasing gene resources through the generative and vegetative
reproduction. Supporting the species conservation process, through the
breeding the rare and endangered flora species for their future
introduction into the wild.
- Increasing the social awareness of the natural environment importance, through environmental education, based on the presentation, preservation and conservation activities in the Jagniątków's Living Gene Bank.
On 10th October 2018 we went to the Bank of Living Genes in Jagniątków.
The aim of the Bank of Living Genes are:
1. Recreate and preserve the biodiversity of species of the Karkonosze flora at species and genetic level.
2. Protection of rare, geo-botanically
distinct plant species, in particular endemics and post-glacial relics.
3. Maintaining the native plant ecotypes as a base for the restoration of
already distorted habitats.4. Securing and increasing gene resources through the generative and
vegetative reproduction. Supporting the species conservation process, through
the breeding the rare and endangered flora species for their future
introduction into the wild.5. Increasing the social awareness of the natural environment importance,
through environmental education, based on the presentation, preservation
and conservation activities in the Jagniątków's Living Gene Bank.
Our guide showed us how to plant the spruce and afterward we tried it too. We prepared tree seedlings.
This time was really awesome and we had a lot of fun and learnt a lot of new information about planting trees and reintroducing them into nature.
The employees of the Karkonosze National Park work constantly on active protection of the Park- conservation of the forest genetic resources and the breeding of forest tree species in the Park.