Uroczysko Buczyna and the Fused Pines, Chorzów

A few minutes from the A4 motorway, where Chorzów, Katowice and Ruda Śląska meet, grows a forest that looks as if Upper Silesia's industry passed it by. Uroczysko Buczyna is 65 hectares of old beech woodland with hundreds of mighty trees, pools created by mining subsidence and the distinctive Fused Pines (Zrośnięte Sosny). Since December 2001 it has been protected as a nature and landscape complex.

A forest that survived

The area lies within Chorzów's boundaries, next to Katowice and Ruda Śląska, and forms part of the protective forest belt around the Silesian conurbation. Its protected status comes from a Chorzów City Council resolution of 27 December 2001; the forest is managed by the Katowice Forest District. It is covered by acidic lowland beech forest, with alder in places. Foresters stress that it is a near-natural woodland — exceptional in such an industrialised region.

What to see

• Old beech stands aged about 140–160 years — around 300 trees measure more than 200 cm in girth at chest height, and 24 have reached the size of protected natural monuments.
• The Fused Pines — two trunks joined a few metres up by a horizontal limb, marked on hiking maps and a favourite walking destination.
• Subsidence pools — two flooded hollows caused by mining damage, with dead trunks standing in the water; in total there are five bodies of water in the area.
• Deadwood — fallen logs and standing dead trunks are deliberately left in place, as fungi, slime moulds and insects depend on them.

Wildlife

142 species of vascular plants have been recorded here, including nationally rare ones such as lesser centaury, lesser wintergreen and bladderwort, a carnivorous plant. Orchids and deadly nightshade also grow here. Ornithologists have recorded 58 bird species, 40 of them breeding — among them tawny owls, collared flycatchers and as many as six woodpecker species, including the black and grey-headed woodpeckers. Grey herons, ducks and little grebes visit the subsidence pools. You may also meet moor frogs, slow worms and adders.

Tripto tip

A green PTTK hiking trail runs through the area, and the Silesian Tourist Organisation's regional portal also describes a short walking route through the beech wood. Allow 1–2 hours for an easy walk that takes in the Fused Pines and the pools. The terrain is varied and boggy in places, so wear sturdy boots after rain. Watch your step on warm days — adders live here. The forest is open free of charge all year; it is at its finest in May, when the beeches come into leaf, and in autumn.