Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Giants of Bialowieza Forest

Wow, the number of Oak Watch followers continues to grow despite my paltry output of late... thank you!  Or, perhaps, the number of Oak Watch followers continues to grow because of my paltry output of late.  Maybe if I stop writing altogether this will become the most read blog in the world!

Huge thank you to reader Walter for emailing a list of fascinating links.  I will pass them along to you one or two at a time. 

Travel to Poland, to be honest, has never been on my bucket list... until now.  Click here to visit the amazing Bialowieza Forest.  Incredible.

The oaks of Bialowieza - and we're talking about pedunculate/English/common oaks (Quercus robur) - are truly massive.  Quoting from the web site: 

In order to emphasize uniqueness of such trees the term CLASSICAL BIALOWIEZA OAK has been introduced. To bear this proud name an oak must meet the following criteria: the trunk's perimeter of such tree at the height of 130cm should be at least 550cm, the height of trunk up to the first branch should be at least 15 meters, the total trunk's height should exceed 25 meters and the tree's height should be at least 36 meters. While in the Forest there are thousands of oaks with monumental sizes, only 10-20 meet these criteria. I think that nowhere in Poland or even Europe there are such oaks like here, in the Bialowieza Forest. 

 For those of you keeping score at home 550cm in perimeter measured 130cm from the ground equates to about 5ft 8in in d.b.h. (diameter at breast height).  Holy cats.

So take a break this afternoon or evening and travel to Bialowieza Forest, at least via pixels.  The druid's Sistine Chapel.

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