The Číhanské slatě Nature Reserve, covering 6.38 hectares near Teplá in the Cheb area, became the 36th small-area specially protected site in the Slavkovský les Protected Landscape Area.
The Číhanské slatě Nature Reserve was established in October 2026 in the Slavkovský les Protected Landscape Area in the Karlovy Vary Region. It covers 6.38 hectares in the eastern part of the area, in the valley of the Luční potok stream between the villages of Číhaná, Babice and Poutnov near Teplá. It protects the best-preserved natural mineral springs in the Czech Republic, together with the adjoining saline soils and wet meadows.[1]
Subject of protection
The main reason for creating the reserve is the wild springs and the life tied to them. People interfered with them in the past by digging pits by hand, but the traces have almost disappeared over the last hundred years.[1] The overflows of iron-rich mineral water are home to unicellular algae, including the rare diatom Pinnularia ferrophila. The fen meadows support, for example, bogbean, flea sedge and marsh arrowgrass, and the common snipe nests there. The peat reaches a thickness of up to eight metres in places, and the layers of pollen and plant remains stored in it make it possible to study the development of the landscape as far back as thirteen thousand years, said Přemysl Tájek of the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic.[1]
Management and access
The administration of the Slavkovský les Protected Landscape Area has mown the most valuable parts of the wet meadows by hand since 2010. Conservationists intend to extend the mowing and gradually remove shrub willows from places where iron-rich water spreads. The site remains freely accessible.[1]
The director of the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, František Pelc, thanked the management of the company Léčebné lázně Mariánské Lázně and the council and assembly of the town of Mariánské Lázně, the owners of the land. He described the creation of the reserve as a gift to the Year of Protected Landscape Areas, which is also under the patronage of the Czech Commission for UNESCO.[1]
Chronology
- — A new nature reserve, Číhanské slatě, covering 6.38 hectares near Teplá in the Karlovy Vary Region, was established in the Slavkovský les Protected Landscape Area to protect wild mineral springs. Deník: Karlovarský kraj
Sources
- Deník: Karlovarský kraj — 8 October 2026