Strambu Baiut, the last virgin secular forest in Maramures

Romania holds 65% of the remaining virgin forests in Europe (besides Russia) and they have a real heritage value for both Romania and the world. The environmental organizations struggle to protect what’s left of them.

In Maramures, the north part of Romania, one of the most beautiful and important natural treasures is still protected, this is the virgin forest of Strambu-Baiut, one of the best preserved natural areas. Strambu-Baiut is located in Tibles Mountains, 50 kilometers away from Baia Mare, just 4 kilometers from the mining town Baiut and 14 kilometers from the mine center Cavnic. Strambu-Baiut, situated on course of Lapus River, was founded in 1835 by bringing together several iron foundries in the region in one settlement.

Today, the forest stretches over 250 hectares and houses huge trees that reach up to 500 years. At Strambu-Baiut there are fir trees, beech, ash trees and pine spruce. In 140 years, a tree reaches 48-50 centimeters in diameter, and up to 120 centimeters in 300 years, as measured by the environmental organization. The beech tree is exclusively a European species, and Romania hosts some exceptional samples of this category.

Virgin forests are the last areas where nature remains in its initial, pure form, without any human intervention. They are stable ecosystems in which live up to 13,000 species.

According to Adevarul, the area from Strambu-Baiut, next to Sincii forests in Fagaras, will be included on the World Heritage List of UNESCO after last year WWF Romania, Romsilva, the Institute of Forest Research and Development together with Greenpeace signed a cooperation protocol to designate the new UNESCO sites.

The agreement is in fact the result of an ambitious campaign ‘Save the virgin forests’, managed by WWF Romania in 2011 when, in just 33 days, over 100,000 people have signed the petition for the campaign.