Weekly review no. 24
15.03.2024
National Park closes Edmundsklamm Gorge for another three years
The popular Edmund Gorge (Edmundova soutěska) in Bohemian Switzerland will remain closed for much longer than previously known. The Bohemian Switzerland National Park has announced that it will not carry out any tree felling work in and above the Edmund Gorge until 2027. The same applies to the Gabrielina stezka trail from Mezní Louka (Rainwiese) to Pravčická brána (Prebischtor). This means that the popular paths will remain closed for safety reasons.
According to the national park administration, the area surrounding the two trails will be left to its own devices for three years. "It has been shown that the quickest way to reopen the trails is to give nature some time to regenerate," explains National Park Director Pavel Kříž. As part of studies, a test felling was carried out above the Edmundsklamm gorge, among other things. The intervention showed that large-scale felling would destroy the nature around the paths and at the same time would not be safe. "The felling would disturb the thin layer of soil," says Director Kříž. Stones and boulders could come loose. In addition, the felling itself is not without danger and involves high costs.
According to Kříž, simply leaving the burnt stumps standing has other advantages. They store moisture and ensure sustainable drainage of rainwater into the soil layers. At the same time, the stumps provide food for insects, which in turn keep birds in the area. Some bird species and bats also use the dead trees as nesting sites. In addition, the burnt trees have scattered thousands of seeds that sprouted last year. This natural reforestation would also be destroyed by the logging. A video commissioned by the national park shows what the Gabrielensteig and above the Edmundsklamm gorge look like now and what the consequences of logging would be.
The closure until 2027 is a hard blow. In an initial statement, the municipality of Hřensko, which owns the Edmundsklamm gorge and operates the boat trips, was particularly disappointed. "The problem is that we are largely taking on the tasks of the state. We finance a fire department that not only takes care of fire protection on the front line, but also the mountain rescue service. We spend a lot of money on the local police force, which in many ways replaces the absent state police. This costs a lot of money and we are sorely lacking the income from the Edmund Gorge," said Deputy Mayor Robert Mareš in an initial reaction to the daily newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes.
Děčín Zoo car-free for three months
Anyone wishing to visit Děčín Zoo in the coming months will have to be prepared for a short walk. The only access road to the zoo, Žižkova Street, has been closed since Monday due to construction work. The road should be open again from June 9, before the start of the main season. But until then, visitors will need to be in good shape, as the zoo is located above the Shepherd's Wall (Pastýřská stěna). The road is only closed during the week between 8 and 17. However, the times are subject to change and the road is only open to cars outside the construction period.
Either way, the Děčín City Council recommends leaving your car in the parking lot on Práce Street between the railroad tracks and the Elbe and taking the footpath via Jahn-Aussicht (named after the gymnastics father Friedrich Ludwig Jahn) and further uphill to the zoo. At 670 meters, this would also be the shortest route to the zoo. This option is also easily accessible from the main station. As a second option, the red-marked hiking trail from Tyrš Bridge via Puchmayerova Street up to Schäferwand is recommended. You can then park your car in the parking lot below the Tyrš Bridge. This route is slightly longer at just under one kilometer.
The closure comes at an inopportune time for the zoo, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. In an initial reaction, the zoo moved one of its anniversary events from May to August without further ado. The zoo is now calling on its fans to come to the zoo with a bear Nicki on August 31. After all, Bruno the Siberian brown bear is the zoo's mascot and by far its most popular animal. The zoo would like to set a new record with as many Nicki wearers as possible.
Czech Republic celebrates 25 years of NATO membership
Three JAS-39 Gripen fighter jets, two Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets and an A-400MS Atlas transporter from Germany flew just 200 meters above the Czech capital on 12 March. With this highly symbolic formation, the Czech Republic celebrated 25 years of NATO membership. In March 1999, Poland and Hungary were the first former Eastern Bloc countries to join the transatlantic defense alliance.
The then US President Bill Clinton attended the celebrations in Prague as guest of honor. His visit brought back memories, especially as the Czech President and former highest-ranking NATO general Petr Pavel made it possible for his guest to visit the legendary Reduta jazz club. Former President Václav Havel had taken him there in 1994. Clinton was not only delighted, but was also persuaded to play a saxophone solo.
He left the music-making to others that evening, but he recalled that it was he who first appointed Czech-born Madeleine Albright as UN Ambassador and later as Secretary of State. Albright, a good friend of Havel, vehemently supported his efforts to get the Czech Republic into NATO as quickly as possible. Havel used all his foreign policy clout to achieve this, and it is indicative of the priorities in the neighboring country that the Czech Republic first joined NATO and then the European Union.
It was also significant that this week, of all weeks, the Czech Republic was able to announce that it had raised enough money to buy 800,000 rounds of artillery ammunition from third countries in order to solve the shortage of ammunition in Ukraine in the short term. The British newspaper The Telegraph could not overestimate this initiative. "If it is true that artillery is the king of war, then this small eastern European country is the kingmaker right now..." Apart from the fact that Czechs tend to see themselves as Central Europeans, many in the Czech Republic will be able to subscribe to this sentence.
Disgruntlement between Prague and Bratislava
The two neighboring countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which separated from Czechoslovakia into two independent states over 30 years ago, are currently at loggerheads over how to deal with Russian aggression in Ukraine. At the beginning of March, the Czech government decided to suspend regular government consultations.
It was only in the fall, after the left-wing populist Robert Fico took office as head of government in Bratislava, that both sides agreed to continue the consultations. The summit of the Visegrád states, i.e. between Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, also ended on a conciliatory note in Prague at the end of February. However, the views on Russia and Ukraine could not be more different. On the one side are Donald Tusk from Poland and Petr Fiala from the Czech Republic, both clear allies of Ukraine and staunch transatlanticists. On the other side is Viktor Orbán, the eternal troublemaker in the EU, who cannot let go of his Putin worship. Robert Fico may have other motives, but he has nothing in common with Orbán in terms of his pro-Russian stance.
However, this has now crossed a red line for Prague. The Czechs have just successfully forged a coalition for the supply of ammunition to Ukraine. Fico's refusal to support Ukraine militarily is an affront. How long the new ice age will last and whether and when consultations will resume is not yet known.
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