Efforts to understand evolutionary dynamics of virgin forests in the territory of today’s Czech Republic date back to the second half of the 19th century. In 1851, the first demonstrable survey in the virgin forests at the slopes of Boubín was conducted. After a long break, prof. Alois Zlatník made extensive research in Ruthenia in 1930s. After the Second World War a promising research of near-natural forests under the direction of Dr. Jaroslav Řehák was carried out at the Forestry and Game Management Research Institute. However, it was stopped in 1960s. Since the 1960s the research was for about 30 years carried out under the guidance of prof. Miroslav Vyskot at the former Department of Silviculture of the University of Agriculture in Brno. At present the research is systematically conducted by a team from the Department of Forest Ecology of VÚKOZ (Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening). Also some staff from Forestry and Game Management Research Institute – research station Opočno and the Faculty of Forestry and Environment of the Czech Agricultural University in Prague participate in the research.
Introduction
Authors: Tomáš Vrška & Libor Hort
