In Belovezhskaya Pushcha, you can sometimes see regularly shaped rectangular clearings along the road. These are the sites of former “Upper Timber Yards.” During World War I, when logging was rampant, felled trees were transported to these cleared areas. A narrow-gauge railway ran along the clearing nearby, transporting the Pushcha’s pines, oaks, and other valuable timber.

More than a hundred years have passed. The narrow-gauge tracks have long been removed, but the clearings remain as scars—a reminder of the harsh trials that Belovezhskaya Pushcha endured. The term “Upper Timber Yard” itself originates from the practice of logging. In former times, tree trunks were delivered to the riverbank (the Upper Timber Yard) to be floated downstream. Downstream, the logs were again stacked (the Lower Timber Yard) to be transported to their final destination. So, over the years, the temporary storage areas for timber, located before the main warehouse, began to be called upper warehouses.