Dilijan National Park
| Dilijan National Park | |
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| Location | Tavush Province, Armenia |
| Area | 240 km² |
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IUCN Category II (National Park)
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| Designated | 1958 as a reserve, 2002 as a national park |
Dilijan National Park, is one of the 4 protected national parks of the Republic of Armenia. Occupying an area of 240 km², it is located in the north-eastern Tavush Province of Armenia. It is known for its forest landscapes, rich biodiversity, medicinal mineral water springs, natural and cultural monuments.
Dilijan National Park was established in 2002 on the basis of the state nature reserve, which in its turn was established in 1958 on the basis of the former Dilijan and Kuybishev forest enterprises. The territory of the newly established national park has stayed unchanged.
The change of the status of Dilijan Reserve to Dilijan National Park was conditioned by several objective reasons, such as inevitability of commercial activity in the area, presence of numerous settlements, including Dilijan town with its mineral water resorts, Yerevan-Ijevan railway line passing through its whole territory and others. Currently, the general plan of the national park is under development, including the clarification of the borders and mapping of economic, recreational and buffer zones of the national park.
The national park stretches over the slopes of the Pambak, Areguni, Miapor, Ijevan (Kaeni) and Halab mountain ranges at the altitude of 1070–2300 m above sea level. The mountain meadows above this altitudes do not belong to the national park. The River Aghstev and its main tributaries – the Rivers Hovajur, Shtoghanajur, Bldan, Haghartsin and Getik run through the national park. There are Parz Lich (Clear Lake) and Tzrkalich (Leech Lake) as well as other minor lakes.
The flora of Dilijan National Park includes 902 species of vascular plants, namely Lycopodium (1 species), Horse-tails (1), Ferns (12), Gymnosperms (7) and Angiosperms (881). About 40 rare species of plants occur in this territory. 29 species of the flora are registered in the Red Book of Endangered Species of Armenia and 4 in the Red Data Book of the USSR.
The vegetation of the national park is of mesophilous Caucasian type mainly represented by forest associations. It mainly consists of deciduous species such as oak (Quercus iberica, Q. macranthera), oriental beech (Fagus orientalis), common and oriental hornbeam (Carpinus betulus, C. orientalis), which form homogeneous oak, beech and hornbeam forests as well as mixed forests with different combinations of the species mentioned. Georgian oak (Q. iberica) forests occur on the southern slopes of the middle forest zone and oriental beech forests on the northern slopes. In the upper zone forest consists of Q. macranthera.
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Wikipedia