Prague, June 20 (CTK) – Czech national parks, including the largest one in Sumava, south and west Bohemia, will open some so far strictly protected and therefore inaccessible localities to the public on the basis of a new law on national parks, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today.
Visitors will for the first time have a chance to see the bizarrely twisted trunks of beeches and birches in the Rychory virgin forest in the Krkonose (Giant Mountains) National Park, north Bohemia, along the border with Poland. So far they can look at them at a distance from a nearby tourist path only, MfD writes.
“Many are of the view that the deformation of the trunks in the Rychory virgin forest was caused by harsh climatic conditions. This is partially true undoubtedly. However, the cattle was also grazing in the forest, biting off new sprouts and letting such shapes of deciduous trees be formed,” Krkonose National Park spokesman Radek Drahny explained.
This virgin forest is probably the most attractive locality that the new legislation will “open” to tourists, MfD writes.
It says the law on national parks, against whichh President Milos Zeman was lobbying in the Chamber of Deputies, cancels the first park zones or the strictly protected territories left to spontaneous development.
Tourists will be allowed to enter them wherever environmentalists do not replace them with “quiet territories,” such as a locality in the Sumava Park that is protected because of the wood grouses’ mating calls there. However even there the environmentalists face pressure to open the area to tourists, MfD writes.
The entry to some localities in the Podyji National Park on the Dyje (Thaya) River, south Moravia, was banned for historical reasons, as they lie close to the border with Austria that was closely watched under the communist regime. These “virgin” areas may be accessible to tourists as well.
“The law gives us three years to prepare the opening of these localities and debate it with all partners,” Podyji National Park director Tomas Rothrockl told MfD.
They include, for instance, moors southwest of Znojmo, south Moravia. “We plan that ponies will be grazing fenced on parts of these moors,” Rothrockl said.
Along with the moorland, meadows below the Sobes vineyard, which is seeking the entry into the UNESCO list of world cultural and natural heritage, will open to visitors in the Podyji Park, MfD says.
The Ceske Svycarsko (Bohemian Switzerland) National Park in north Bohemia, bordering on Saxony, will newly offer the “Wasp’ View” platform and a forest near the tourist path to the Pravcicka brana, Europe’s largest natural stone bridge, MfD writes.
The Modry sloup former border crossing and a direct path to it in the Sumava National Park have become symbols of the fight for opening wild nature to people. Now tourists might be able to enter the locality. Sumava National Park director Pavel Hubeny said it might be opened under certain circumstances if passers-by did not disturb the wood grouse nesting there, MfD writes.
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