Protection of the Fauna and Flora of Poland

Abstract

IF one may judge by the size and quality of Ochrona Przyrody for 1931, the publication of the National Council for the Protection of Nature in Poland, a very vital interest is taken there in the preservation of natural amenities. The articles contain proposals for the formation of reserves for the primitive flora of the Dniester valley and elsewhere? but, perhaps because the position of some of the animals is more precarious, we turned to find out what measures were being discussed for their behoof. The opinion is held unanimously that the chase of the red deer of the Carpathians during the period of rut is harmful to the species and is responsible for the annual degeneration noticeable in the herds. But agreement is not reached as to the best means of meeting the difficulty. The majority hold as a distant ideal the desirability of suspending all hunting during the period of the rut, but since the custom is old-established and widespread, a gradual approach to the desirable end is suggested. An interesting paper by Wladyslaw Burzynski, the chief forester, discusses the position of the bear in the eastern Carpathians. The War was responsible for the slaughter of much of the breeding stock, so that even now the number probably does not exceed three hundred in an area of about 300,000 hectares. A third paper describes a visit to the workings and lodges of two colonies of beavers, one on the Szczara, the other on the Niemen.