Izera Valley Peat Bogs Nature Reserve

Izera Valley Peat Bogs Nature Reserve is a peat bog nature reserve in the Mirsk municipality, extending partly into the Szklarska Poręba town municipality. It covers a fragment of Hala Izerska, and by its boundary stands the Chatka Górzystów mountain hostel.

How the peat bog formed

The peat bogs began forming as early as the end of the Ice Age, which is why the deepest layers are as much as 11,000 years old. A chain of raised and transitional bogs formed thanks to heavy rainfall and standing water on impermeable ground, and the process was accelerated by the felling of waterlogged coniferous forests carried out by Czech settlers around the 17th century. The forests never regrew after felling, while the smaller bogs that predated the clearing expanded, partly because of a rise in groundwater levels.

Vegetation rare on a national scale

The bog is home to mountain pine, growing here at the lowest-lying site of the species in Poland, as well as alpine juniper, crowberry and cloudberry. The peat is covered with sphagnum moss, sundews, sedges and cottongrass. The reserve also protects a site of dwarf birch, one of only three places where it grows in Poland.

History of the area's protection

The current reserve was established in 2000, covering an area of 529.36 hectares. It replaced a smaller reserve, Torfowisko Izerskie, set up in 1969 over an area of 44.72 hectares specifically to protect the dwarf birch. The area is today under active conservation.

Practical information

• The reserve lies in the Mirsk municipality, in the area of Hala Izerska, partly within the boundaries of the Szklarska Poręba municipality.
• By the reserve's boundary stands the Chatka Górzystów mountain hostel; check the access route before heading out.
• A model of the reserve's peat bog vegetation can be seen at the Izera Three Elements Educational Garden in Świeradów-Zdrój.
• Also nearby are the peak of Wysoka Kopa and the Spa Park in Świeradów-Zdrój.