Environmental Protection of the Gorce Mountains by The

Home , Gorce Mountains, Gorce National Park, Pieniny, Podhale

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION OF THE AND GORCE MOUNTAINS BY THE USE OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

KRZAN National Park Zakopane. POLAND SOKOLOWSKI Polish Academy of Science Mineral and Energy Economy Research Centre, POLAND

Key words: Doublet, Ecology, Air pollution, Defoliatian Tatra are an important center of popular and winter sports. The TNP research station coordinates 100 scientific programs annually, and the naturc museum presents natural values of the park. 1992 Tatra Park Poland one of most polluted countries. This became a MAB Biosphere et 1993). also applies to that of high touristic Podhale basin, where geothermal waters have Pieniny National Park discovered, is national parks. A large The total area of the park is 2328 of which 25% are scale ecological degradation is observed due to atmospheric pol- strictly nature reservation. 'The highest peak, lution some of which is due t o emissions from lo- crowns) is 982 Park is covered cal sources. Geothermal water fur and farmland. climatic zones encompass a moderately in settlements (Zakopane, Nowy Biaty Dunajec, w a r m zone cool zone There etc.) can beneficially influence state of are species of vascular planrs with many endemics and rare health of population and the environment in national parks l'he whole area is located in a low mountain forcst aonc, as well as area's numerous nature reservations. with a forest dominant. The very the park contains 45 specics of t70 species of birds, and numerous fauna Pieniny National is also an historical site. Tourist totaling 28 NATIONAL PARKS Canyon boat, well as many other tourist facilities make the park The southern part of Poland is a very popular lor visitors. There i s no nature museum, beauty, and it has high natural qualities. In this area, four bur a small nature in have tn the high biodiversity of (Salmon 1993). it's nature. The distances between national parks here are less than km, and between lies Podhale-a densely populated Gorce area whose economy is based on tourism. In the region, there are thousands of hotels, pensions, houses and other The total area of t h e park is 6743 hectars, of which 2850 ha are focusing on tourism. relatively are a nature reservation. The highest peak 1288 here: and Nowy Targ, with some industry in the lat- above sea level. The majority of the area i s covered ter. millions of the hnth the rain There arc climatic zoncs in the park ranging from summer and winter seasons. moderately warm t u deter- of organizing national parks in this region appeared vegetation zones: low and high mountain forests. The very early, in second half of the nineteenth century of the park species of vascular plants, Tatra Mountains. Ultimately, three national parks were and over 700 of nonvascular plants with many organized 1954, namely: and high mountain species. fauna of the park has not been and National Park created in 1980. fully documented yet, art. over species nf and 36 spccics of living there. There are 10 tourist Tatra National Park footpaths, arid a as c a m p areas. A comparatively young Gorce Park no Largest in the region, and second largest in Poland, the nature museum, a scientific station now in organization National Park has 21,164 hectars, half of which i s in The highest. peak i s at 2199 and the variation altitude is over 1600 meters. Climatic Babia National Park five ( 5 ) ranging frnm moderately cool to cold (from -2 to Vegetation shows high diversity with total area of the park i s hectares, 'l'he highest peak, zonation: low and high mountain forests up to 1550 is 1725 and the change is 900 meters. mad, the dwarf pine zone (to 1800 marl), hectares are under strict nature protection, and zone (to 2300 and higher the rocky peaks zone. The area is of the area i s mountain forests Climatic zonation is additionally according to here with altitude from warm with mean yearly the Western Tatras [limestone) and High perature 6-8°C the highest peak level flora over 1,000 species of vascular plants (mean annual from 0°C to In connection and more 2,000 species of nonvascular plants many en- with climate, main zones of vegetation exist: low and high demics,and rare mountain species. A rich is rcprcscntcd mountain forests zones,the dwarf pine zone and by typical mountain species, such zone. and groundhog species which in The flora Babia National Park has only here:. National Park has about 25U km of of vascular plants, well over species of nonvascular foothpaths, 8 mountain shelters, as well as many other facilities. plants many species. The

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Fag.6 . Defoliation of forests:

fauna of the park highly diversified with 166 species and over 24W invertebrates. In the park‘s thcrc are 36 kilometers of tourist footpaths, and a Pieniny Tatra NP facilities such as shelters, camping arcas, of nature Ea others. Babia Gora is a significant and training of students. Since 1976, Babia has been Because permanent of air pollu- a tion begun in by the Forest lnstitutc al. we actual situation in the CURRENT POLLUTION OF THE ATMOSPHERE field of air pollution. pollution is the primary cause of ecological As can be seen from the graph of 7) Compared to to be NO, (Fig. is quite close to that of the most polluted one. [Fig. 7, 8). Comparing pollution in the badly polluted region to situation to Poland i t can seen that the Podhale region in the comparatively clean country. is even worse than the most pollution region. i s higher during the winter s e a m , which is closely related to the of heavily defoliated trees is and arc coal system dominant in the densely only few percent of defoliated trees. This is quite a that of the air is af lo- different than in north eastern of Poland. cal origin, although influences from rest of Poland i s a dominant tree arc also observed. Air pollution and its health condition can be used as an index of na- influencing the Podhale region was determined ture degradation. Data from (Fig. b) that also in a major threat to natural heritage. The this case, forest is is in the Pieniny Sational Park (Fig. . badly region than in :he cleanest compared t o Gorce National Park and of area,

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The Tatra National Park appears to be past and results of experiments carried out cleanest place in Podhale region. The average SO, in Poland, well as experiences of other countries ingress there is 3 to 4 times lower than in Pieniny or iog geothermal the appropriateness of further However, ficld observations show t h a t defoliation is serious in dcvcloprncnt in Poland and in other Centrat and the places, it is quite close to complctc. of spruce and fir. biological Geothermal waters that occur in of lost in plots inside the park. we between four national parks an area of about investigate actual defoliation and try determine degree what is about of the area of Dunajec River basin over risk of total defoliation of forests. reports. the water dam in in and data, know that, in other national parks and basin! observed via several wells, exist in the following forma- the rest of Podhale region defoliation is even tions: Eocene dolomites and Triassic limestones upper unit and in Liassic and Middle Triassic forma- There i s only one way protect nature tions of central and lower regle units (South part of the t h i n ) . air pollution t o significantly its As Presently. and Triassic waters of the upper using Mountains as an example, to of and Jurassic waters of tion comes from local sources the coal heating unit which predominates in t h e Presently used energy sources Geothermal waters t h e highest, have to be for clcancr ones: for heating purposes in the Experimental Geothermal Plant i n solar or wind power, well clean geothermal Dunajec to supply heat the own building, The best the possi- is to utilize a of pool, swimming pool and ble sources. is important system which comprises about 350 dctachcd buildings in On the was preliminary elaborated in EGP the programme of POTENTIAL heating of Podhale This three stages. First all, the heating Central Valley Because of long-term impact of dcgradation the (Biafy Dunajec) i s planned, than Valley and West statc of the environment is It to soils Valley waters causing progressive decrease of flora and fauna. Some In carry projects the species of and trees Every tree pro- pany Geotermia S.A. established. It prepares gressively in Tatra National Park. If such degree of projccts as definite undertakings and endeavours to degradation continues with the intcnsity it then within years result in the totd of forests in this region. This may furthermore result in flooding and land the side of the and near erosion, stopped by t h t of the environment presently conncctcd will thus help the in the above mentioned with the chance of utilizing, on a regional scale, of protected areas. energy, natural energy sources for heating purposes. In Polish there about waters, containing thermal energy to about 700 million tonnes of standard The conditions in Poland for using mol water for heating purposes exist. basins of the Podhale (between the Tatra BIOSPHERE IS POLAND Preprrcd i n Na- and the Klippen Belt Fig. Thcrc geothermal wa- tional MAB Committee, editor NATURE 1993. Map of Poland,scale ters with tcmpcratures ranging fmm CONSERVATION OF - Z. - 1993, and Babia high artesian pressure (about 25 atm at and Seminar an Environ- outflow) exist. The rcsourcc of geothermal mental by Use of 13-18 at over and energy content equivalent to Septcnibcr 51-58 million of standard fucl. KRZAN - Park Narodoae The results of a exploitation of 12M: ska Dunajec doublet show, that method of pro- MALACHOWSKA J., J. ducing and re-injecting of not cause Poland in 1992 (in Polish) pipes nor disturb the hydrodynamic - 1993 Babia Sational Park Polish]. Sar- tions, and has not the environment. i - Pieniny National Park Polish) Naro Studies done at the Geothermal Plant i that geothermal energy can a comprehensive - nf Poland and the for heating driers, greenhouses and fish farming of their Utilization Environmental well as for and Seminar Protection by the use of Economic assessments the authors and by specialists Zakopane Scptcmber 1993, J. i in. in frnm Great Britain, and New show Forests - Technical Monitoring. (in Polish). in the cost of receiving a unit Poland - 1993. National Park (in Polish), waters ran he much lower than from energy carriers 31-38. such as coat, lignite, natural gas or oil.