Kampinos Forest | |
Native Name: | Puszcza Kampinoska |
Native Lang: | pl |
Map: | Poland |
Relief: | 1 |
Region: | Masovian Voivodeship |
Country: | Poland |
Events: | Palmiry massacre |
Kampinos Forest is a large forest complex located in Masovian Voivodeship, west of Warsaw in Poland.
It covers a part of the ancient valley of the Vistula basin, between the Vistula and the Bzura rivers. The forest began to form 14-11,000 years ago, at the very end of the Last Glacial Period.[1]
Once a forest covering 670 km2 of central Poland, it currently covers roughly 240 km2. In its present day form, most of the woodland is no longer old-growth forest but rather the remainders of a once-managed forest which is now left to grow on its own, with little human intervention.[2]
Most of the Kampinos forest is currently protected within Kampinos National Park (Kampinoski Park Narodowy).
Among the distinctive features of the area is a combination of sandy dunes and marshes, with dense pine and spruce forest.
The forest is a Natura 2000 EU Special Protection Area.[3]