8. Biebrza ( To view location on itinerary map click here)

  Map taken from the Biebrza National Park website  

General

Biebrza National Park was established in 1993 and is situated in Northeast Poland, in the Podlaskie region. The park is linear, running northeast from the Belarusian border for approximately 90km southwest, to the Biebrza River's confluence with the Narew.   The Park has a span of 15km at its widest point and covers an area of 59,233 hectares.  It is the largest of the Polish national parks and contains 15,547 hectares of forests, 18182 hectares of agricultural land and, most importantly, 25,494 hectares of wetlands known as the Biebrza Marshes.  In fact the whole Biebrza River Valley is widely regarded as the largest and the best preserved area of lowland bogs and forest raised bogs in European.   

The marshes act as a natural barrier to invasion and there is a large Fortress at Osowiec, in the centre of the Park. The fort was built by the Tsars in the late 19th century, as defence against the Germans.   

Fort at Osowiec

There have been population migrations in this part of Poland, as rulers and kingdom boundaries changed over the years.  When talking about this one of the people that I met said "You know the houses here are made of wood and so they burn easily."  Also, the impact of WWII is still felt by the Poles more than most.  In one of the older wooden houses in which I stayed, the owner went into a room full of junk and pulled out a rusty German mauser rifle. When I'd got over the shock of him turning around with it under his arm he explained that he'd found it in the roof of the building; and that it had been used as a German billet during the war.  

A typical wooden house at Biebrza. Unusually there is no white stork on the roof!

Although there was much insurrection in the area during WWII, most of the population that was not killed remained in the area; except for one Jewish village where everyone was... 'taken away'.  Very few of the local land holdings were nationalised to state farms and there is a long tradition of farming in the area.  Some 46% of the marshes are privately owned.   

The area in which the Biebrza Marshes are located is the coldest in Poland, not including the mountains, and the winter snow and ice can last up to 140 days in the upper part of the site; the thaw coming slightly earlier in the southern basin.  The farming season is short and the ground remains soft in many of the boggy areas.  

Wildlife

Waterfowl choose not to winter in such extreme cold conditions.  However, as the ice thaws and the spring floods slowly drain, the site warms, coming to life with an exceptional wealth of breeding bird species. 

 As many as 185 breeding bird species have been recorded including: little gull Larus minutus, jack snipe Lymnocryptes minimus, white- tailed eagle Haliaeetus albicilla, spotted eagle Aquila clanga, lesser spotted eagle A. pomarina, booted eagle Hieraaetus pennatus, red-necked grebe Podiceps grisegena , great bittern Botaurus stellaris, little bittern Ixobrychus minutus,  black stork Ciconia nigra, white stork Ciconia ciconia, whooper swan Cygnus cygnus, garganey Anas querquedula , pintail Anas acuta, shoveller Anas clypeata, pochard Aythya ferina, ferruginous duck Aythya nyroca, tufted duck Aythya fuligula,  black kite Milvus migrans, red kite Milvus milvus, osprey Pandion haliaetus, black grouse Tetrao tetrix, water rail Rallus aquaticus, spotted crake Porzana porzana, little crake Porzana parva, corncrake Crex crex, common crane Grus grus, dunlin Calidris alpina, ruff Philomachus pugnax, black-tailed godwit Limosa limosa, common redshank Tringa totanus, marsh sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis, jack snipe Lymnocryptes minimus, common snipe Gallinago gallinago,  woodcock Scolopax rusticola, little gull Larus minutus, black-headed gull Larus ridibundus, 4 tern species,  european roller Coracias garrulus, bearded tit Panurus biarmicus, penduline tit Remiz pendulinus, hoopoe Upupa epops,3 harrier species, 6 eagle species, 3 owl species, 4 woodpeckers species, great snipe Gallinago media and the largest European population of aquatic warbler Acrocephalus paludicola.  The site harbours 21 of the 56 bird  most threatened species in Poland.

The botanical interest of the site is exceptional and the botanical communities vary according to the topography and soil type.  The lowest lying areas are dominated by reed and sedge swamps.  There are:  open water areas and the river; enormous areas of tussocky sedge beds dominated by fibrous tussock-sedge Carex appropinquata; low lying area on the edges of the marsh dominated by moss bogs and wet alder woodland; slightly higher grassy areas on the alluvial clays; and some wet hay meadows and open ditches.   Rare species include lousewort, saxifrage, Jacob's ladder, cotton grass and rare bryophytes.

Sedge bed at the site are particularly important for the great snipe and aquatic warbler.

Large mammals are represented by elk, wolf, European beaver, otter, fox, badger, pine marten, polecat, roe-deer, and wild boar.  There are also muskrat and racoon dog at the site. There are records of 17 species of small mammal including harvest mouse, dormouse, and water vole.

Elk

Management Issues

Whilst at the site, I met up with several farmers, staff from the National Park and people involved in NGOs and eco-tourism.   It seems that the major threat to the site is that of lack of management due to abandonment of large areas, leading to secondary succession, mainly to birch woodland.

Succession from grassland to birch woodland

This is leading to a loss of the important open wetland habitat where many rare ground nesting birds breed.  The traditional utilization of the sedge beds was based on cutting of the vegetation by hand during the summer and then stacking it into small ricks (as below); then removing it in the winter, when the ground is frozen and it is possible to get in there with a wagon. 

A Biebrza hay rick  

The fodder quality of the sedge is very low.  It is probably utilizable to some degree by hardy stock, but has value as bedding during the cold Polish Winter.   However, farming in Poland is changing and many farmers are in the process of either expanding or giving up altogether.  The largest areas of the sedge beds are in the southern basin, with best access from the east side of the site.  This area was utilised as described above by the people of the nearest local village. However, the people from that village now choose to apply their labour elsewhere, many working as far away as Belgium.  

With there being very large areas of tussocky sedge beds and unmanaged grasslands (>50000 hectares) the National Park have purchased a large Swedish manufactured, low ground pressure, powerful flailing machine.   There are some ideas that the sedge beds could be harvested on rotation to be utilised in small scale biomass power stations. 

The quality of the fodder seems to be better on the west side of the southern basin and farmers on that side are still haying and grazing the areas of the marsh where the fodder is of the highest relative quality.  All of the farmers are dairying and will herd stock out across the river Biebrza and back to small parlours.  Many of the herds are so small, <10 cows,  that they can be milked into small churns by hand in the field; and the milk bought in to village a co-operative vat for collection. 

Friesian cattle in the Biebrza Marshes

I asked the farmers that I spoke to about parasites and toxic weed problems and they said that they did not have any concerns about this.  One of the farmers mentioned his nephew, who he said had bought holsteins and put them out on the marsh, but they'd all become sick and many had died.  He clearly perceived that holsteins are not hardy enough for the marsh. 

Whilst driving around the outside of the marsh I came across two farms; with large dairy herds of over 40 animals, surrounded by silage and maize fields.  They were probably not utilising the marsh.  Many are worried that farming will intensify in areas of the marsh where it is possible to lower water levels, reseed, fertilise and make silage.  I think that this is less of a threat than abandonment, although the two go hand in hand.  Generally, intensive dairy farmers have little use for rough, sedgy grass swards. 

Some NGOs have the strongly held view that grazing with konik ponies (known by some as tarpan horses) is the way forward.  They could potentially play an important role in keeping vegetation in check across parts of the site where there is no farming.  However, there is some difference of opinion with regard to just how much of the site they could graze effectively or whether they will bite into the sedges.  It seems that the National Park managers are not entirely convinced and they are the ones in the position of power.

Along with the Warta River Mouth National Park, Biebrza National Park is involved in piloting Polands agri-environment scheme.  There is some optimism that there will be good incentives for farmers to continue to manage their land in a wildlife friendly way.  It is a different situation to the UK in that farmers are being asked not to intensify rather than being encouraged to extensify.       

I am aware that the draft pilot agri-environment scheme for Poland incorporated some very sound ideas for prescriptions.  These included: