On Nature in the Czech Republic

The presence of non-native Sika deer (Cervus nippon nippon) in the wild in the Czech Republic has been tolerated for several decades. Sika deer are attractive game animals, and therefore, the hunters have no interest in reducing their numbers. The undemanding and adaptable Sika deer has taken full advantage of this. In some areas in the Czech Republic, the invasion of Sika deer has reached such proportions that it is almost impossible to find a natural habitat without having been significantly damaged by them. The fact can be well illustrated by examples of long-term monitoring plant species and communities in the Slavkovský les/Slavkov Forest (western Bohemia).

Our predecessors—naturalists, local historians, and members of ornamental societies/ beautification associations and tourism clubs—took an interest in the landscape among the towns of Turnov, Jičín, and Mnichovo Hradiště, nowadays located on the border of Central Bohemia, northern Bohemia and eastern Bohemia, as early as the 19th century. But when did the name “Český ráj/Bohemian Paradise” first appear in connection with the landscape around the Trosky/Ruins Castle? For decades, it has been claimed that the name was coined by 19th-century Prague writers, led by Jan Neruda and Eliška Krásnohorská. They used to go to the spa of Sedmihorky for recreation, and it was there that the name “Český ráj/Bohemian Paradise” was born.

The Slavkovský les/Slavkov Forest Mts. is a beautiful area with a rich cultural heritage, where humans have been coexisting with nature since ancient times. 

One of the tasks in the Programme Statement of the Government of the Czech Republic issued in March 2023 is the preparation of documents for the designation of the Krušné hory/Ore Mountains (also known as Erzgebirge) Protected Landscape Area in cooperation with the municipalities and regions concerned. So to what extent has the commitment been fulfilled just now when the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic has announced its intention to designate the Krušné hory/Ore Mts. Protected Landscape Area as a public decree, and how long is the way to really achieving this goal?

“Mess in the forest! Who has ever seen such a thing, leaving so much wood to rot uselessly!” Such words have been heard in the Šumava/Bohemian Forest Mts./Bohemian Forest Mts. for over thirty years. Fortunately, less and less frequently. Anyone who visits the Šumava/Bohemian Forest Mts. will certainly notice the striking amount of dead wood in the forests, tree rows, on the edges of fields or balks, and in abandoned meadows. Dead wood is primarily produced by nature, but in Specially Protected Areas in the Czech Republic it is also deliberately created by nature conservationists. Wood that has been cut into pieces or possibly debarked, shining in the green of the bilberry bushes, may not seem particularly conservation-oriented, yet it is worth considering why such wood is better than none at all.

In all expert analyses carried out in the last thirty years, the Podluží and the Dyje/Thaya River Floodplain Area below the Nové Mlýny Waterworks (South Moravia) ) was classified as the highest priority for complementing the large-size Specially Protected Area network in the Czech Republic. In addition to including the area into the European Union’s Natura 2000 network, its importance has been confirmed by declaring the Dolní Morava/Lower Morava UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2003, thus extending the Pálava/Pavlov Hills UNESCO Biosphere Reserve declared in 1986. Two Ramsar sites/Wetlands of International Importance stretch to the area and its significant parts are also protected by the appropriate cultural heritage legislation. Despite the national and international importance, only 2% of the extraordinarily significant landscape have been included into the Specially Protected Areas.

The Alpine treeless Krkonoše/Giant Mountains., mountain tundra with elements of Arctic tundra, Krkonoše/Giant Mts. tundra, and Krkonoše/Giant Mts. Arcto-alpine tundra are probably the most common designations for the 47 km² of unique ecosystem of international importance with a number of unique features; for example, geomorphological forms of glacial and periglacial origin, azonal habitats of glacial karsts, mountain ridge mires of a subarctic character, springs, dwarf mountain pine or subalpine and alpine grasslands, and with the presence of endemic species and many dozen glacial relics. The Krkonoše/Giant Mts. tundra is one of the most important subjects of protection of the Krkonoše/Giant Mts. National Park, which celebrates its 60^th anniversary in 2023. What is its value from the point of view of natural sciences and how is it currently changing?

Half a century. This is the time during which the landscape inhabited by man can change very significantly. Fifty years ago, exactly on 5 March 1973, the Beskydy/Beskids Mountains Protected Landscape Area (PLA) was declared in north-eastern Moravia (Moravian-Silesian Region). At that time, communist regime was “enthusiastically” being built and many currently inconceivable intentions had targeted just the Beskydy/Beskids Mts., e.g. support to building weekend cottages for workers from the Ostrava industrial region there or transformation of mountain pastures and meadows into arable land to compensate fields destroyed during coal mining. New infrastructure was being developed in the valleys, while people were leaving traditional wooden cottages with small fields on the mountain slopes and moving into centres of villages. Therefore, the forest was progressing on the hills as well as constructions in the valleys. Meadows and pastures and consequently, sheep, orchids, and insects were declining. If we look into the 50-year history of the PLA, we will find that some of the requirements for the use of the landscape have been still topical; about others, we only know from eyewitnesses.

It seems almost unbelievable how long nature conservation has been in effect – and on such a large territory and at the same time so successfully. After all, a national park has been established on most of the territory of the original Šumava/Bohemian Forest Mts./Bohemian Forest Mts. Protected Landscape Area (PLA), and several dozens of new small-size Specially Protected Areas have been designated in the remaining area! Together with the Bayerischer Wald/Bavarian Forest National Park, it is a huge forest ecosystem with high level of protection and conservation: across 417,000 hectares there is no logging, within more than 30,000 hectares there is no game hunting. Therefore, Nature has been building its real cathedral there. 

Experts in a range of disciplines are currently studying the impacts of the 2022 České Švýcarsko/Bohemian Switzerland National Park fire on different ecosystem components in the fire area, and are also monitoring spontaneous natural restoration there. The present article summarises some of the first empirical observations, which can partly also be seen by visitors to the National Park, and includes several photographs comparing the situation between 2022 and 2023. Exact results of these studies will undoubtedly be the topic of scientific publications after the completion of ongoing research projects.