Carpathian Forest. A Winter Walk. We Observe, Get Inspired, Recharge

A forest is always balm for the soul, a source of inspiration and reflection, and winter forest scenes amaze with their charm and stir the imagination.

In calm, windless weather, a walk through the green expanse will strengthen your health, recharge you with energy and bring new impressions.

 

Even in winter the Carpathian forest does not lose its evergreen attire, captivating with its emerald mystery.

 

At the forest edge there are fenced grazing grounds for cattle and apiaries set up with the most industrious of bees. At a crossroads, following the tradition of the highlanders, a chapel has been built or a memorial cross erected.

 

The Carpathian forest is the largest in Ukraine; it makes up a third of the forest fund and is renowned for its beech primeval forests. Forestry signs provide information about the area of the green workshop and the quarter plots. Stands and boards have been installed to protect the forest's riches and remind visitors how to behave in this green territory.

 

Despite the warnings « Do not destroy what you love », traces of vandalism still occur.

It seems that everything has frozen and fallen silent, but that is only at first glance. Not everyone in the forest loses their activity and falls asleep in burrows. By the tracks in the snow you can tell the movements of the local wildlife. Roe deer move about in groups, feeding on the young shoots of bushes and trees and raking away the snow with their hooves.

 

By the end of January the length of daylight has increased and, warming in the sun's rays, the plants quicken the flow of their sap. The honey-bearing alder is one of the first to prepare for early spring, adorning its leafless crown with catkins.

 

Amid the impassable wild undergrowth that has overrun the space where timber was felled, a young pine and a young spruce have banded together in the struggle to survive in the forest tract.

 

During the construction of the road the rock strata were laid bare, and the roots of centuries-old trees cannot always hold back a rockfall.

 

On the road cuts you can study the structure of the loamy soils, noting that the humus layer is extremely thin.

 

The mass die-off of spruce is becoming a problem for all the Carpathian massifs.

 

The uninvited guest, the parasitic mistletoe, is increasingly found on coniferous trees, slowing the growth of these forest beauties.

 

The road leads off into the distance of the green kingdom, and the winter fairy tale goes on.