An experiential educational weekends in the valley of the Bubovický stream

Photo by Jindřich Prach.

Two events combining experiential education and management of nature protected area took place on the third weekend of October and second weekend in November in cooperation with the Brontosaurus Movement and the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic. Young people set out on an excursion through the valley of the Bubovický brook and the views of Paní hora in the Bohemian Karst protected landscape area, Karlštejn Nature reserve. Various types of forests – both maintained by traditional management (e.g. grazing) and non-intervention were presented. On the hill Mokrý vrch, everyone put their hand to active care of the local steppe and forest-steppe patches. The shrubs were removed with scissors and saws, and the rakes simulated litter-raking in the marginal parts of the steppe patch under mature oaks.

The issues of conservation management and the beauty of the local nature were presented using an explanatory pictures – comparative historical and contemporary maps and aerial images of the site, important local plants (e.g., very rare orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis) that are not visible in the fall, etc. And there was a lively discussion when and where to take out sometimes radically management to maintain selected species and when and to what extent, or when/where the contrary, possible non-intervention is appropriate.

Anacamptis pyramidalis, photo by Jindřich Prach. 

Photo by Jindřich Prach.