The Gołoborze Nature Reserve

The Gołoborze inanimate nature reserve is located in the old Huczwice village, in the Baligród commune, in the Ciśniańsko-Wetliński Landscape Park area. The nature reserve was established in 1969 and covers an area of slightly over 12 ha. The purpose of its establishment is to protect the stone run, gradually overgrowing imitatively by the subalpine fir and spruce forest. "Gołoborza" (Stone run) is loose rock debris built of smaller or bigger rock pieces, without finer fractions such as gravel, sand or loam. Gołoborze in Rabem is a natural boulder field of Istebnian sandstones by Rabski stream, with a rock vegetation community and rare minerals. Such low-lying gołoborzes can be found in the Polish Carpathians only south of Baligród in a small area called "Bystry shells". In the Bieszczady Mountains they can be seen above the upper forest border, on somemountain pastures. Istebnian sandstones, which form debris, consist mainly of different sizes of quartz grains, and silica occurs as a bond. The age of the local gołoborzes is determined at the end of the last glacial period. The Natural reserve protects the largest patch of  gołoborzes, but there are definitely more of them in the surrounding forests. A lot of rare lichen grow on the rocks, some of which can be spot in the higher parts of the mountains. One can find here protected plants such as fir clubmoss, stiff clubmoss, hard- fern, common polypody, claspleaf twistedstalk and others. The Baligród Forest Inspectorate led through the reserve a nature path.