Los Alerces National Park

Los Alerces National Park
Los Alerces National Park is located in the Andes in Chubut Province in the Patagonian region of Argentina. Successive glaciations have molded the landscape in the region creating spectacular features.The Park is located on the Futaleufu River basin which encompasses a complex system of rivers and chained lakes, regulating the drainage of the abundant snow and rain precipitation.

This forest is one of the five temperate forest types in the world, and the only ecoregion of temperate forests in Latin America and the Caribbean. The inscribed area corresponds to the Los Alerces National Park, a legally protected area equivalent to IUCN Category II.

The vegetation is dominated by dense temperate forests, which give way to alpine meadows higher up under the rocky Andean peaks. A highly distinctive and emblematic feature is its alerce forest and the globally threatened alerce tree is the second longest living tree species in the world(3,600 years).

The alerce forests in the park are in an excellent state of conservation. The landscape in this region is moulded by successive glaciations creating a scenically spectacular variety of geomorphic features such as moraines, glacial river and lake deposits, glacial cirques, chain-like lagoons, clear-water lakes, hanging valleys, sheepback rocks and U-shaped valleys.