Drawa National Park () is located in north-western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, on the border of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

Lubusz Lebus () is a historic town in the Märkisch-Oderland District of Brandenburg, Germany. It is the administrative seat of '' Amt'' ("collective municipality") Lebus. The town, located on the west bank of the Oder river at the border with Poland, wa ...

and

West Pomeranian Historical Western Pomerania, also called Cispomerania, Fore Pomerania, Front Pomerania or Hither Pomerania (; ), is the western extremity of the historic region of Pomerania, located mostly in north-eastern Germany, with a small portion in no ...

Voivodeships. The park is a part of the huge Drawsko Forest (Puszcza Drawska), which lies on the vast Drawsko Plain. It takes its name from the River

Drawa The Drawa () is a river and popular aquatic trail in Poland, 192 km long. The surface of its catchment area amounts to 3291 km2. The Drawa begins its course at Lake Krzywe in Drawsko Landscape Park and ends it in Noteć below Krzyż ...

. The national park was created in 1990 and initially covered 86.91 km². Later, it was enlarged to of which forests account for 96.14 km² (3.68 km² is designated as a strictly protected area), and water bodies cover 9.37 km².

Geography

Over 80 percent of its area is covered with forests – the great and monumental Drawa Forest stretching from the Drawa Lake District to the Noteć River. It is mostly made up of beech and pine trees. There are picturesque and deep valleys of the

and Plociczna rivers as well as numerous water channels, lakes and peat-bogs. In some places the height can vary by 30 meters within 500 meters. The highest hill (106 m) is located near the Martew lake, in northern part of the park. The soil in the park is of poor quality and it mainly consists of sand.

Protection needs

One of main reasons for the creation of the park was the need for to protect valuable areas along the

and Plocziczna rivers. The Drawa creates interesting

valleys A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a ve ...

and hollows and 40 km of the river is within the borders of the park. The river flows at a quite fast pace, which makes it similar to rivers located in mountains. The Drawa kayaking trail is one of the most picturesque in Poland. Lakes include the

meromictic A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters. The term ''meromictic'' was coined by the Austria ...

lake Czarne (3.7 km²).

Flora and Funga

There are several interesting species of flora in Drawski National Park, among them 210 species of

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

s, and

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

trees up to 400 years old. The oldest trees are strictly protected in the Radecin Preserve. Trees older than 81 years old cover 40% of the forested area of the park.

Fauna

There are 129 species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s, 40 species of

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s, 7 species of

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s and 13 species of

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

s. The good quality of water in the lakes and rivers enables various species of fish to flourish. Roe deer,

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or Hart (deer), hart, and a female is called a doe or hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Ir ...

and

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

are very common in the national park. The park also hosts high populations of

eurasian otter The Eurasian otter (''Lutra lutra''), also known as the European otter, Eurasian river otter, European river otter, common otter, and Old World otter, is a semiaquatic mammal native to Eurasia and the Maghreb. The most widely distributed member o ...

and

beaver Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

. Occasionally

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

and

gray wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

can be found in the park.official website of the drawa national park (polish)
/ref> The area in the past, when it was located on the border between Poland and Western Pomerania (later Prussia), was regarded as unsuitable for human settlement and only since the 17th century have its forests been cleared for settlement. The park is crossed by four attractive tourist trails, for both walking and kayaking. There are camping sites and within some distance hotels. The number of visiting tourists has been increasing year on year. The park has its headquarters in the town of

Drawno Drawno () is a town in Choszczno County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland, with 2,219 inhabitants as of December 2021. The headquarters of the Drawa National Park (''Drawieński Park Narodowy'') are located here. History Th ...

, in

Choszczno County __NOTOC__ Choszczno County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms pa ...

References

External links

Drawa National Park

{{Authority control National parks of Poland Protected areas established in 1990 Parks in Greater Poland Voivodeship Parks in Lubusz Voivodeship Parks in West Pomeranian Voivodeship 1990 establishments in Poland Central European mixed forests