Near Brno, a Vanishing Steppe Is Being Reborn: Nearly 80% of Overgrowth to Be Cleared for Rare Orchids and Butterflies

At Hádecká planinka near Brno, the conservation group Rezekvítek is restoring the landscape to what it looked like back in the 1930s — open steppe and sun-loving oak woodland in place of today's overgrown scrub. According to Rezekvítek representative Vilém Jurek, the goal of the project is to save disappearing species of plants and animals, including rare orchids and the Clouded Apollo butterfly (jasoň dymnivkový).

Hádecká planinka is a national nature reserve covering roughly 80 hectares within the protected Moravian Karst landscape area. The restoration work will cover about six hectares. Conservationists have already cleared two hectares of open ground that was half-overgrown with shrubs. Across the rest of the site, the wooded steppe will be expanded into areas currently choked by dense "jungle-like" undergrowth.

These measures are needed because valuable steppe meadows are gradually vanishing from the Czech landscape as they become naturally overgrown. "Where we're recreating the wooded steppe, the clearing will be radical — we'll remove nearly 80% of the current woody vegetation," Jurek explained. The result should be light, open woodland with a rich grassy understory.

The project is being carried out in stages so the landscape doesn't change too abruptly all at once. After the first clearing phase, ecologists will continue felling this autumn. But next year will be the pivotal one: the organisation has already secured the necessary permits from the regional forestry protection authority and plans to reintroduce sheep grazing to the plateau for the first time in decades, making it a permanent part of the site's upkeep.

The deliberate thinning of the oak woods is meant to create optimal conditions for numerous threatened species. More light and space in the understory should benefit rare organisms — ecologists hope to support populations of orchids, the red viper's bugloss (hadinec nachový), and the Clouded Apollo butterfly, which is at risk of disappearing entirely. The renewed landscape is also expected to provide a refuge for the green lizard, the largest lizard species found in Czechia.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by brnan.cz