On Nature in the Czech Republic

Nature Conservation 3/2009 — 30. 6. 2009 — On Nature in the Czech Republic — Print article in pdf

The Jeseníky Mts. Protected Landscape Area

authors: Taťana Schmidtová, Ladislav Hajný, Jan Halfar, Jindřich  Chlapek

The Jeseníky Mts. Protected Landscape Area was declared on June 19, 1969, covering 740 km². The PLA is among the regions with highest proportion of forests within the Czech Republic.

Because reaching the altitude of 1,491 m a.s.l., the Jeseníky PLA is at the same time vertically the most developed Protected Landscape Area in the country. The Praděd National Nature Reserve (NNR) is the most valuable part of the Jeseníky Mts. With its 2,031 hectares, it is the largest NNR in the Czech Republic. Approx. 70 % of the Jeseníky PLA was declared as a Bird Area (in Act No. 114/1992 Gazette on the Protection of Nature and the Landscape, as amended later, the term for Special Protection Areas, SPAs under the Birds Directive) in 2004, thus having become a part of the European Community’s Natura 2000 network. In the PLA, 13 Sites of European Importance (in the above act the term for Sites of Community Importance, SCIs under the Habitats Directive) have been listed on the National List of proposed SCIs. They protect mountain Norway Spruce forests and a system of peat-bogs. Vegetation of rocks, spring areas, tall-herb floodplains and snow patches in the Velká kotlina/Great Basin Glacial Cirque is highly unique, including a lot of relics, e.g. Alpine French Honeysuckle or Sweetvetch Hedysarum hedysaroides. The area harbours a lot of endemic taxa, e.g. the Ash-Mountains Meadow-grass (Poa riphaea), Sudeten Mountains Bohemian Bellflower (Campanula gelida), Sudeten Mountains Eastern Carline Thistle (Carlina biebersteinii subsp. sudetica), Sudeten Mountains Carthusian Pink (Dianthus carthusianorum subsp. sudeticus) and Sudeten Mountain Dark Plantain (Plantago atrata subsp. sudetica). Habitat diversity and quality has resulted in high wild animal species richness there. Although humans caused extinction of the representative fauna species, e.g. the Brown Bear (Ursus arctos), Grey Wolf (Canis lupus), Wild Cat (Felis silvestris), Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix) or Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), at present other species have been returning back, e.g. the Eurasian Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium passerinum), Peregrine (Falco peregrinus), Common Raven (Corvus corax), Corn Bunting (Mi­liaria calandra), Common Rosefinch (Carpodacus erythrinus) and Eurasian Otter (Lutra lutra). At present, a pair of Common Cranes (Grus grus) has been found in the PLA. Birds are the best studied animal taxa. By this time, 168 bird species have been found there, of them 123 as breeders. Bats can meet suitable conditions in abandoned mining workings. Two sites where regularly approx. 2,500 individuals of 12 bat species hibernate have become a part of the Natura 2000 network: among the bat species found there the Barbastelle (Barbastella barbastellus), Greater Mouse-eared Bat (Myotis myotis) or Lesser Horseshoe Bats (Rhinolophus hipposideros) should be mentioned. Due to well-preserved parts of nature and agitated history of influencing the landscape by humans, the Jeseníky Mts. Protected Landscape Area definitely is a unique natural and cultural heritage. The most valuable parts of the Hrubý Jeseník Mts. have been currently considered to be declared as a National Park.