Tatra National Park, Poland

The Tatra National Park (Polish: Park Narodowy Tatrzański, TPN) is a national park in Poland, located in Lesser Poland Voivodeship on the Slovakian border.

General

Although the National Park was officially established in 1954, there have been since 1925, first joint experiments with Czechoslovakia to protect the Tatras. In 1937, a protected park was opened in the state forests of the area. While in 1949 the Tatra National Park founded in Czechoslovakia ( TANAP ), a national park has been realized on the Polish side in 1954. In 1993, the Polish and Slovak part of the Tatra National Park by UNESCO was declared a Biosphere Reserve and an international field of global importance. The Tatras are a mountain complex of the Fatra - Tatra region of the Carpathian Mountains. Here one finds in Poland else unique alpine type mountains that provide a relief with elevation changes up to 1700 m. The majority of the Tatras in Slovakia, in the smaller Polish part contains the highest elevation of the country ( Rysy, 2499.6 m npm ).

Flora

The vegetation is characterized by a typical step structure. In the lower Hochwald ( up to 1250 m npm ) dominate fir-beech forests in the upper Hochwald (up to 1550 m npm ) spruce forests, which spill over into the area of ​​dwarf pine and grass plants (up to 1800 m npm ). About this height, the alpine zone begins. It is estimated for the National Park a number of over 1000 species of vascular plants, of which 85 species protection under stand. Many of the park growing plants are endemic to the Tatra Mountains, or the Carpathians. Mention may be made here, for example, the stone pine, Carpathian saxifrage, Carpathian larkspur, mountain avens and grape - saxifrage. Separately to mention also are the Three-column ledges and the two-line head grass, which form an endemic community of alpine grasses and turn red in the fall and give a big part of the mountains a characteristic color, the " Czerwony Wierch " (red peaks).

Fauna

The extremely rich fauna of the national park is also characterized by many Endemitem as well as rare and protected species. Among the rarities of the local fauna are protected since the mid -19th century, chamois and marmots as well as the brown bear, lynx, wolf, otter and several dozen bird species, including the golden eagle, hawk wallcreeper and the Alps Braunelle. In the higher parts of the forest grouse, black grouse and hazel grouse nest. In the forests are well represented stags and deer, and small rodents.