Włodzimierz Tomek’s interest in nature made itself known in his childhood. His father and grandparents were hunters and he learned from them on their hunting trips. Tomek began studying in the Forestry Faculty of the Lviv Polytechnic before 1939. Although the completion of his studies was delayed because of the Second World War, he graduated in 1947 from the Agriculture and Forestry Faculty of the Poznań University. Upon his return to Ciężkowice, Włodzimierz Tomek took up the post of forester in the Gromnik Forestry Division (‘Nadleśnictwo Gromnik’). He joined the Małopolska Hunting Society (‘Małopolskie Towarzystwo Łowieckie’) in Lviv in 1935, although he certainly had participated in hunting trips from an early age. The Tomek family home was always full of animals. The residents of the surrounding area regularly brought wounded, sick, or young wild animals to this peculiar shelter. One of Doc. Tomek’s most important conservation efforts was stopping sandstone quarrying in the Skamieniałe Miasto (‘Petrified City’) Nature Reserve. Moreover, in the 1960s, he helped create the Diable Skały (‘Devil’s Rocks’) Nature Reserve in Bukowiec, and prevented the cutting down of old trees in the historical park by the I. J. Paderewski manor house. He also made major contributions to the knowledge and documentation of the region’s qualities.