DESOP Pilsen and Plzeňská teplárenská a.s. present...
People's relationship to water, landscapes and beavers can take different forms and with time is changing. Fortunately, the European beaver is once again a common part of our nature. But it wasn't always like that......
For almost the entire year 2020, our team together with photographer Tatiana Typltová were dedicated to documenting surface water paths in the Pilsen region. We selected a total of nine natural sites, which we photographed first from a drone, then from the ground, and in the end we added typical wildlife of the site. Out of two and a half thousand photos we have selected over two hundred and fifty of the best ones and now we are bringing them to your monitors, tablets and mobile phones. This is an electronic exhibition of unique photographs of natural waterways and wetlands. Beautiful photographs from locations that you may be familiar with. And maybe you didn't know that we have them in the Pilsen Region. Come along with us to see these unique places where one of our best water managers and masters of landscape architecture has been working for a long time.
Kateřinský brook
Lesná, Žebráky, Hošťka, Svatá Kateřina, Diana ... These are all places where one of the most beautiful streams in the Pilsen region flows, at least for us. Places where the European beaver has been farming for over twenty years and clearly shows what it can do. A place where in December 2020, thanks to two main partners, investors and many other smaller donors, we purchased 5.6 hectares of land on both sides of the stream and were able to return it to wild nature. The exhibition traces the journey of the water on about 3 km of the Kateřinský Brook below the village of Hošťka. It is divided into three self-contained parts. Despite the fact that part of the stream is a protected "European Important Site", there is illegal and deliberate destruction of beaver dams. That is why we decided to buy the land.
Lochousice, New Pond
A beaver created a total of three beaver dams one of the ponds on the tributary. They hold and clean the water flowing into the pond, prevent the pond bottom from being clogged with floating topsoil and, most importantly, are home to many wildlife and plants. In addition, the spilling of water into the surrounding landscape destroys the spruce trees planted by people, which are unsuitable for the stream floodplain, and thus creates space for native fast-growing tree species. In a few years, thanks to beavers, there will be a fully functioning habitat and water supply. What more could you ask for?
Přehýšovský pond
When the beaver cut down the first tree at Přehýšovský Pond, everyone went crazy. When we transported and released one beaver there on 16 March 2008, we were even threatened with a fine. Then, when a beaver built its first dam on a tributary to the Přehýšovský pond and flooded the neighbouring land, it was discussed at the Přehýšov council. Today, another giant industrial hall is being built close to the pond, several dozen hectares of arable land have irretrievably disappeared, all the water from paved surfaces and roofs is diverted into the tributary of the Přehýšovský pond, giant floodlights shine almost all the way to the village at night and nobody minds?! Strange times. And it's all the beaver's fault!
Mže Waterfall
A place where the beaver left the water its speed and beauty. True, the main reason why there are no beaver dams here is probably the fact that the Mže River in this section flows through a mature monocultural spruce forest, where there is almost nothing but sturdy conifers. But when bark beetles, windstorms or loggers make way for sun and other tree species, maybe the beaver will come here too, and with it more life.
Sklářský brook – Obora, v. n. Lučina, Milíře
Already from the road you can see the beaver dam at the culvert of the Sklářský brook, flowing under the road to the Mlýnský pond and the Lučina reservoir. A huge water area of the flooded valley floodplain with a beaver lodge and dry trees on the right bank, encroaching again into a monocultural, man-made spruce forest. While the dark "industrial" conifer forest is devoid of life, the sunny water surface and the wetland are alive. Unfortunately, the beaver dam here is regularly destroyed by people and no one knows why!
Nýřany – Wind Pit
About three kilometres from the dam of the Přehýšovský pond, downstream of the Vejprnický brook, the Vejprnický brook meets the Luční brook. The two then continue together along the man-made channel towards Nýřany and Úherce. Below Tesla, near the old and non-functional WWTP, the water hits a beaver dam and floods a large part of the right bank. The water between the mature poplars and their branches is an absolutely perfect backdrop for the floodplain forest. Everything looks as if it has always been there, but the opposite is true. Here, too, the beavers are changing the landscape and returning it to its natural character. More precisely, there has always been water in these places, until people artificially brought it into a dug-out channel and removed it from the landscape. In the past, coal was mined underground here, and humans did not want water to complicate their mining. Today, however, coal is no longer mined here, and nature is taking back its land.
Nýřany – Janovský Wetlands
A location that we have written about several times on these pages. A unique wetland of about 75 ha created by a single beaver dam. An area that is being talked about as a new nature reserve of the Pilsen Region. A place where countless wild animals, including the rarest ones, have returned with the water. One of the most interesting locations, which would be a shame to lose, and at the same time a place that should be some compensation for the areas left behind by other industrial halls on the Luční brook below Úherce.
