Aukštaitija National Park

Aukštaitija National Park lies in northeastern Lithuania, about 100 kilometers north of Vilnius. Established in 1974 as the Lithuanian SSR National Park, the first such park in the republic, it was renamed Aukštaitija after four more parks named for the ethnographic regions of the country were created in 1991, and it remains the oldest of the five national parks of Lithuania. It covers 410.56 square kilometers, more than 70 percent of it wooded, mostly with pine stands up to 200 years old, and the strictly protected areas that make up 2.1 percent of its territory can only be entered accompanied by a park employee. The park is home to 64 plant species, eight fungus species and 48 bird species listed in the Lithuanian Red Book, and holds 59 percent of all plant species found in Lithuania despite covering less than one percent of the area of the country.