Wigry National Park () is a national park in Podlaskie Voivodeship in north-eastern Poland. It covers parts of the Masurian Lake District and Augustów Primeval Forest (Puszcza Augustowska). It is named after lake Wigry, the largest of the park's many lakes. It is also classed as a Ramsar wetland site, one of 13 such sites in Poland. The park was created on January 1, 1989, on an area of 149.56 km2. Today it is slightly larger at , of which 94.64 km2 is forest, 29.08 km2 is waters and 27.14 km2 other types of land, mostly agricultural. Strictly protected zones account for 6.23 km2, including 2.83 km2 of woods. The park has its headquarters in the town of Suwałki. The park’s landscape was to a large extent shaped by a glacier which covered this region around 12,000 years ago. The glacier, while slowly receding to the North, formed valleys, many of which are filled with water in the form of lakes. Some of the shallowest lakes have in the course of time become peat-bogs. Northern part of the park is hilly, with elevation reaching 180 meters above sea level. Southern part, on the other hand, is flat and is mainly covered with a forest, which is part of the broader Puszcza Augustowska. The park is famous for its numerous lakes, which are of different shape, size and depth. Altogether, there are 42 of them, the biggest, Wigry, covering the area of 21.87 km2 with maximum depth of 73 meters, is located in central part of the park. The main river is Czarna Hańcza, which crosses Lake Wigry, and forms a popular kayaking route. History The first attempts to protect the nature of Lake Wigry and its surrounding area were undertaken in the 1920s – first by Kazimierz Kulwieć and later by the botanist Bolesław Hryniewiecki and the limnologist Alfred Lityński – but never came to fruition. Their activities, however, led to the creation of a hydrobiological station on the shores of the lake in Płociczno. It was active until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The first protected area, a partial reserve named “Wigry”, was established in 1931. Two other reserves, “Ostoja Bobrów Stary Folwark” (Stary Folwark Beavers’ Refuge) and “Ostoja Bobrów Zakąty” (Zakąty Beavers’ Refuge), were established in 1959 and 1962 in order to protect beavers. In 1970, Lake Wądołek and a fragment of an adjacent forest