The Department of Nature Protection in Rural Areas was founded in 1953, together with the Institute for Land Reclamation and Grassland Farming .

From the beginning of its existence, the Department carried out the studies connected with transformation of natural wetlands . The outcome of the Department activities is the knowledge and unique parametrical databases of Polish wetlands collected continuously for half of the century. There is a full continuity on the merits with the works of prominent pre-war peat-scientists, educated on the largest in Europe peatlands of Polesie.

In the Department the Polish school of hydrogenic soils was created, and the foundations of Polish grassland farming were laid.