Na Policy Nature Reserve

Nature

Jesienny las. W oddali panorama pasm górskich.

Zawoja Tourist region: Beskid Żywiecki i Orawa

If you dream of a walk down a green forest bath, head to the Nature Reserve at Polica, which covers Mt Babia and the Beskid Żywiecki Ranges. You can relax and breathe there while walking among the spruce trees.

The nature reserve on Mt Polica is a forest enclave named after Professor Zenon Klemensiewicz, a linguist, pedagogue and professor at Jagiellonian University, who died in a plane crash on the slope of Polica. The reserve was created in 1972 and covers an area of more than 58 hectares at an altitude of up to 1,369 metres above sea level. It is located on the northern slope of the Mt Polica Range (the Mt Babia Range, the Beskid Żywiecki). The reserve lies within the Zawoja commune, and a green tourist trail runs through the area to the centre of Zawoja. The reserve area is part of the Natura 2000 sites 'On Mt Polica' and 'Polica Range’. The reserve was established to preserve a natural spruce forest for scientific and cultural reasons. It is well worth a trip there to glimpse of many protected plant species. Careful observers will be able to spot, among other things, goatsbeard, alpine bells, mezereon and fir clubmoss. There is also limber and dwarf pine. Among the trees, you can spot or hear grouse and three-toed woodpeckers. Those who look carefully have the chance to spot the Pseudogaurotina excellens, a beetle that lives only in the Carpathian Mountains. Within the reserve is the 21-metre-deep Oblica Cave.