Endangered Tree Species Salvation

In the Liberec region, as it is in the whole country, there is only a little attention paid to silviculturally less significant trees nowadays. When planting trees in open air, original endangered and critically endangered tree species are almost not used nowdays as unoriginal cultivars are usually prefered. The administration office of CHKO (Preserved Landscape), which we co-operate with in the long-term, tries to plant original trees in the Jizera Mountains CHKO, but unfortunately they suffer from a lack of seedlings of certain species. Outside of their activities these kinds of tree species aren't used for planting at all. In addition to little use of these species, there is also little general knowledge of the public about occurrences of these rare tree species.

Salvation of endangered tree species has been our main priority since the foundation of our organization in 1994. From the very beginning we have mapped occurrences of firs, Wych elms and European white elms in forests, we collect their seeds which we later grow in our bio-nurseries. In recent years we have focused on small-leaved lindens and large-leaved lindens, which are very rare in the region. In the long-term, we have planted seedlings of firs in selected locations within our land trust in co-operation with municipal and private forests in Podještědí, Hrádecko and on the Ještěd Ridge. We annually plant elm seedlings in open air within the "Chance for Elms" project in co-operation with schools a children's homes in the whole region. Over seven years of the project's run we have achieved to plant over 5,000 elms in hundreds of locations. We have taken care of European yews since 1996. We map occurences of this rare tree species and collect seeds based on the exception from the Ministry of Environment, we grow the seedlings in our bio-nurseries and make them ready for planting in oper air.

We have planted bird cherries, European wild pears, European wild apples, daphnes, Guelder roses, European spindles, common dogwoods and other species of both locally and nationally endangered and rare bushes for several years. We have mapped trees and bushes in order to collect seeds and there are thousands of seedlings in our forest nurseries ready to be planted.