Over the next ten years or so the Polish Sahara Association will pull up trees and bushes from some 250 hectares of land, in an effort to restore the only place in Poland where desert mirages happen.

Elzbieta Krajewska reports

Bledowska desert

This is the only hope for the Bledowska desert, Poland and Europe’s biggest stretch of loose sand. Located on the Silesian Highlands, it lies far nearer to the southern mountain belt than to the Baltic Sea. Over the ages, the desert grew because of human activity – zinc, silver and coal mining, but started to disappear in the previous century after it began to be used as a military exercise field. 

Now, the Polish Sahara Association is combining efforts with local authorities in neighbouring Klucze and Dabrowa Gornicza to restore the Bledowska sands.

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