Geographia Polonica Vol. 88 No. 2 (2015)

24 cm

In Poland’s Babia Góra Massif (the most elevated ridge in the Western Flysch Carpathians), and in the surrounding valleys, various kinds of economic use of natural resources have been engaged in the last 600 yearsor more. However, the most major changes in the natural environment here have taken place under the influence of grazing and forestry. Some such economic uses already represent forms of human activity that are nowhistory, their cessation being the prerequisite for a regeneration of vegetation that is now ongoing. One of the most visible effects of past grazing is a lowered timberline first and foremost coinciding with the more accessiblesouthern slope of the massif. In turn, on a small part of the steep northern slope degraded by grazing, avalanches have become active, along with debris flows of earlier times, both of which also served to fragmentforest. Protection of the Babia Góra Massif has brought the end to grazing referred to, and this has allowed for the progressive return of the timberline to its previous position. Overall, the work described here is basedon information from the literature, unpublished studies and maps dating back over the last 400 years.