Białowieża Forest in the context of Primeval forest

Viskuli (Russian: Вискули́, Belarusian: Віскулі, Polish: Wiskule) is a hunting estate in Białowieża Forest, in Pruzhany District, Brest Region, Belarus, named after the former khutor Viskuli nearby, about 8 km from the Poland-Belarus border, 2 km south of Belarus Route P81.

The Belarusian–Polish border is the state border between the Republic of Poland (EU member) and the Republic of Belarus (Union State). It has a total length of 398.6 km (247.7 mi), 418 km (260 mi) or 416 km (258 mi) (sources vary). It starts from the triple junction of the borders with Lithuania in the north and stretches to the triple junction borders with Ukraine to the south. It is also part of the EU border with Belarus. The border runs along the administrative borders of two Voivodships Podlaskie and Lubelskie in the Polish side and Grodno and Brest Vobłasć in the Belarusian side. In the Polish side, the 246.93 km (153.44 mi) section is under the protection of the Podlaski Border Guard Regional Unit, while the 171.31 km (106.45 mi) section is in the operation area of the Bug Border Guard Regional Unit. Border rivers (from north to south) are Czarna Hańcza, Wołkuszanka, Świsłocz, Narew, and Bug.

Hajnówka is a town and a powiat seat in the Podlaskie Voivodeship in eastern Poland, with a population of 21,442 inhabitants as of 2014. It is the capital of Hajnówka County. The town is also notable for its proximity to the Białowieża Forest, the biggest primaeval forest in Europe. Through Hajnówka flows the river Leśna Prawa. It is one of the centres of Orthodox faith and a notable centre of Belarusian culture in Poland.Belarusians constituted 26.4% of the town's population in 2002.

It is one of five Polish/Belarusian bilingual gminas in Podlaskie Voivodeship regulated by the Act of 6 January 2005 on National and Ethnic Minorities and on the Regional Languages, which permits certain gminas with significant linguistic minorities to introduce a second, auxiliary language to be used in official contexts alongside Polish.

Coarse woody debris (CWD) or coarse woody habitat (CWH) refers to fallen dead trees and the remains of large branches on the ground in forests and in rivers or wetlands. A dead standing tree, known as a snag, provides many of the same functions as coarse woody debris. The minimum size required for woody debris to be defined as "coarse" varies by author, ranging from 2.5–20 cm (1–8 in) in diameter.

Since the 1970s, forest managers worldwide have considered it best environmental practice to allow dead trees and woody debris to remain in woodlands, recycling nutrients trapped in the wood and providing food and habitat for a wide range of organisms, thereby improving biodiversity. The amount of coarse woody debris is an important criterion for the evaluation and restoration of temperate deciduous forest. Coarse woody debris is also important in wetlands, particularly in deltas where woody debris accumulates.