The forest in Bohemian Switzerland recovers quickly after the fire, birch dominates

After the fire was extinguished, a plain with charred tree trunks remained in the forest in a number of places, and there was only ash and sand on the ground. The forest began to recover almost immediately.

“Nature knows fire and is well prepared for it,” said Tomáš Salov, spokesman for the park administration, to Novinkám.

The massive rejuvenation of the pioneer tree species is mainly attributed to the fact that, as a result of the fire, a substantial part of the layer of needles, which had accumulated during the decades of existence of the spruce monocultures, burned. “It can significantly slow down the spontaneous rejuvenation of trees. However, at the fire site, the seeds of woody plants were already falling directly into the substrate, which, on the contrary, suits them well,” described Salov.

At the moment, according to him, visitors to the park will be attracted at first sight by the extensive growths of mosses, the extremely colorful world of mushrooms, and herbs are also being added.

“When it comes to trees, the fire area is practically continuously overgrown with pioneer trees, the most abundant being birch, but other species are also represented, such as poplar and aspen. But we also find other species, for example whooping crane, Scots pine or oaks,” Salov listed.

At the same time, he reminded that the fire was not the same everywhere in the park, so it is possible to come across stands that survived the fire without major damage.

“Whether it is older stands of birch, pine, oak or beech. On the days of wet valleys, young spruce trees often grow. Among the herbs, visitors will undoubtedly be interested in the abundantly represented and distinctive foxgloves in the near future,” he added.

According to him, the crazy spring weather, when temperatures fell from summer values ​​to below freezing in a few days, could have had a certain effect on the progress of vegetation. “Only time and the further development of the weather will tell. As a result of the morning frosts, for example, the newly sprouted leaves of some beech trees burned, but the trees will recover,” the spokesperson assured.

According to him, the problem is not so much temperature fluctuations as precipitation deficit. “If drought and heat continue, it may affect the development and survival of some tree species, depending on how well they tolerate such extreme conditions,” he noted.

According to him, it will therefore depend greatly on the development of the weather in the coming years, while it already appears that the entire territory of the Czech Republic may repeatedly face long periods of drought and heat waves.

“If the changes in the weather are not so extreme, in the future we can expect a development similar to the one we know from the area of ​​the fire station near Jetřichovice, where it burned in 2006. Today there is a species-varied young forest, where deciduous tree species predominate. The layman no longer recognizes that this is an area affected by fire,” he pointed out.

Salov reminded that the forest is not an immutable target state. “It is a continuous process of growth, decay and renewal. The fact that the local forest is young does not mean that it is somehow incomplete or less valuable,” he emphasized.

In the area of ​​Hřensko, the youngest naturally formed forest in the Czech Republic is now located on an area of ​​ten square kilometers. “It will age over time, and its further development and forms will be determined by the entire spectrum of natural factors,” concluded Salov.

The largest forest fire in the history of the Czech Republic broke out in the national park in 2022 on the night of July 24. Because of the fire, the police charged the man with public endangerment and damage to another’s property. If found guilty by court, he faces up to 15 years in prison.