Narew National Park () is a

National Park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

Podlaskie Voivodeship Podlaskie Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in northeastern Poland. The name of the voivodeship refers to the historical region of Podlachia (in Polish, ''Podlasie''), and significant part of its territory corresponds to th ...

, north-eastern

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 ...

, created in 1996. Prior to that, its area was part of the Narew Landscape Park. The park is a section of the

Narew River The Narew (; ; or ) is a 499-kilometre (310 mi) river primarily in north-eastern Poland. It is a tributary of the river Vistula. The Narew is one of Europe's few braided rivers, the term relating to the twisted channels resembling braided h ...

. It is a swampy valley with

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

hills typical of a

braided river A braided river (also called braided channel or braided stream) consists of a network of river channel (geography), channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called ''braid bars'' or, in British English usage, ''aits'' or ''eyots''. ...

. Depending on the season and the level of the water table, several

riparian area A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

ecosystems are available, including

swamps A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

, tussocks with surrounding black alder () and white willow () forested areas. The total area of the park is , of which only is state-owned. The rest is distributed across 12,000 different plots of privately held land, mostly by small-scale farmers. The park covers the Upper Narew Valley, a swampy area between the towns of

Suraż Suraż is a town in north-eastern Poland situated in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, seat of Gmina Suraż in the Białystok County. Suraż, which has a long and rich history, and was a royal town in the Kingdom of Poland, currently is one of the smal ...

and Rzędziany. Around 98% of the park's area consists of rivers, periodically flooded lands, or wetlands. The Narew is the park's main river, which splits in the area into many river beds, but also numerous smaller rivers, such as Liza, Szeroka Struga, Awissa, Kurówka, Kowalówka, Turośnianka and Czaplinianka. The park's landscape is predominantly made up by many varieties of marshes, reed beds, and there are also meadows and forests. The Narew Valley is a haven for birds—there are 213 species of them, including those unique for the area. Mammals are represented by around 36 species, among them some elk and otter as well as numerous beavers—around 260 of them. The park's waters are full of fish—27 species—as well as amphibians. When it comes to invertebrates, the park plays host to over 200 species of

rotifers The rotifers (, from Latin 'wheel' and 'bearing'), sometimes called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera ) of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudocoelomate animals. They were first described by Rev. John Harris ...

, over 70 species of

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

, and 66 species of butterfly (so around 40% of the amount of butterfly species present all across Poland). The Park is a wetland site protected under the

Ramsar convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...

. Cultural attractions of the park are mostly represented by buildings such as numerous traditional village huts, ancient crosses by the roads and windmills. One of the Park's attractions is a private archaeological museum, owned by Władysław Litwinczuk. The park also includes an antique manor house at Kurowo.

References

External links

Official Narew National Park website

{{authority control National parks of Poland Parks in Podlaskie Voivodeship Natura 2000 in Poland Ramsar sites in Poland 1996 establishments in Poland Protected areas established in 1996 Wysokie Mazowieckie County Central European mixed forests