A long and sharp conflict over the by-pass of the popular holiday resort of Augustow has finally been resolved. The government decided that the badly needed road will not run across the Rospuda River valley, protected under the EU Natura 2000 scheme. A new route has been chosen.

Report by Krystyna Kolosowska.

The conflict dates to the late 1990s, when the decision was taken to build the by-pass of Augustow, running across the unique peat land of the Rospuda River Valley, with many protected species of plants and animals. Huge pillars of concrete were to be driven into the marshes to support a fly-over.

Environmentalists rallied to protest against the project, pointing out that an alternative route is available and that the marshland, which is a unique eco-system on the European scale, must be saved. In the late 2006 the European Commission warned Poland that the project was violating the EU law, as the by-pass would encroach on the protected Natura 2000 area. Eventually, the Commission brought the matter before the European Court of Justice.

Augustow is run down by seven thousand trucks passing it daily. Its people wanted a by-pass to be built as fast as possible, even if that meant destruction of the Rospuda River Valley. At the same time, Poland’s conservationists fought for an alternative route. Adam Wajrak, environmental journalist writing for Gazeta Wyborcza, was among those who chained themselves to trees to prevent bulldozers and chain saw operators from entering the unique valley.

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