Lipowska Nature Reserve

The Lipowska Nature Reserve is a forest reserve in the massif of Lipowski Wierch and Rysianka in the Żywiec Beskids. The Silesian voivode established it in June 2008, as the 64th reserve in the Silesian Voivodeship and the 11th in the Żywiec Beskids. It covers 62.6 ha within the Żywiec Landscape Park, on State Forests land: 35.12 ha belongs to the Węgierska Górka Forest District, the rest to the Ujsoły Forest District. The area is under active protection.

What is protected here

The reserve covers the summit plateau and the north-western and south-eastern slopes of the massif of Lipowski Wierch (1324 m above sea level) and Rysianka (1332 m above sea level). The Carpathian flysch rocks are clearly bedded here, and on the broad plateau water drains with difficulty or forms small depressions without outflow. On such a substrate, poor in nutrients and acidic, raised bogs of the summit type have formed, known as mszary or rojsty, with small pools. Their protection was the aim of creating the reserve, together with the upper montane spruce forest and the upper montane spruce coniferous forest around the bogs.

Vegetation and animals

The tree stand is formed almost exclusively by spruce of the ecotype characteristic of the primeval Carpathian forest: it grows in loose canopy, is branched down to the ground and usually does not exceed 25 m. In the undergrowth bilberry and wood small-reed dominate, and the moss layer covers from 60 to 90% of the area. Among the herbaceous plants are alpine species such as green hellebore, willow gentian and clasping twistedstalk, and bog species, among them bog bilberry, bog-rosemary and cranberry. In the summit parts of the surrounding massifs live all the large predators of these mountains: the bear, the wolf and the lynx, as well as the capercaillie, the largest of the Polish gamebirds.

Threats

The area is exposed to strong human pressure. According to the description of the reserve, a bigger problem than trampling off the trails is the churning up of the bogs by quads and motocross bikes. For this reason, in the reserve you must keep to the marked trails and not enter the area with vehicles.

Practical information

• Location: the massif of Lipowski Wierch and Rysianka, near the village of Żabnica, on the border of Ujsoły and Węgierska Górka municipalities.
• In the area lie Rysianka and the PTTK mountain hut on Hala Lipowska, which can serve as a base for an outing.
• Check the course of the trails and any restrictions on entry before setting out with the land manager, that is the Węgierska Górka Forest District or the Żywiec Landscape Park.