Chomontowszczyzna Nature Reserve

Chomontowszczyzna Reserve
The reserve was established (…) on August 10, 1999. The area of the reserve is 234.42 ha. The purpose of its creation was to preserve, for scientific and didactic reasons, a fragment of the Knyszyn Forest, characterized by a high degree of naturalness, constituting the mainstay of a free-living bison herd. The protection of forest meadows and stream valleys overgrown with riparian forests, alder forests and moist oak-hornbeam forests, with numerous species of protected and rare plants, is carried out here.(…) Within the reserve, eight habitat types of forest have been distinguished, of which mixed swamp forest habitats predominate - 64.6% . The share of fresh forest habitats is significant - 13.0% of the area and moist forest - 12.3%. (…) This area is characterized by floristic richness and numerous species of protected and rare plants. The flora of the Chomontowszczyzna reserve includes over 250 species of vascular plants. During the work on the "Protection plan of the reserve" in 2004, the presence of 220 species of plants was found, including 12 species of trees, 12 species of shrubs, 153 species of herbs, 15 horsetails, clubmoss and ferns, and 28 species of bryophytes. Some swamp species, whose habitats are constantly shrinking as a result of lowering groundwater, also deserve special protection.