The Jeseníky Protected Landscape Area is one of the largest protected landscape areas in the Czech Republic. It lies near the northeastern border of the Czech Republic, in the eastern Sudetes, and covers almost the entire Hrubý Jeseník mountain range. The elevation of the area ranges from 314 to 1,492 metres.[1]
Establishment and protection
The area was declared on 19 June 1969, covering 740 km², in order to preserve the natural wealth and landscape of the mountain range.[1] The most valuable and, at the same time, most attractive sites for tourists are protected by the Praděd, Rejvíz, Šerák-Keprník and Rašeliniště Skřítek national nature reserves. To date, 32 small-scale specially protected areas have been declared.[1]
14 Sites of Community Importance have been designated within the area. Most of its area is covered by the Jeseníky Bird Area, which protects the corncrake and the hazel grouse. The area overlaps with the Jeseníky Protected Area of Natural Water Accumulation, and it also contains several village heritage zones.[1]
Notable features of the area
The most valuable features are the areas of treeless alpine terrain and the adjoining primeval spruce forests. Jeseníky is among the most heavily forested protected landscape areas, and remnants of beech forests have also survived here. The subjects of protection also include peat bogs, mountain streams, meadows, rock formations, rare plants and animals, as well as architecture and a landscape shaped by human activity.[1]
Geology and landscape development
The Jeseníky area is geologically complex and diverse. It is divided into several main domal units, whose cores consist of rocks older than the Devonian, and the main ridges of Hrubý Jeseník are formed by the Desná Dome in the east and the Keprník Dome in the west. Gneisses and mica schists predominate among the rocks.[2] The rocks forming the mantles of the domes originated mostly in the Devonian, when the area was flooded by the sea. Metamorphic rocks, such as phyllites, shales and marbles, later formed from its sediments. Volcanic activity in the Devonian sea left behind diabases, spilites and keratophyres, and deposits of iron ore, non-ferrous metals and gold are also associated with it.[2] The sea retreated eastward during folding at the end of the Paleozoic, and the rocks of Nízký Jeseník, known as the Culm, formed from its deposits.[2]
During the Quaternary, the Nordic continental ice sheet reached the foothills of Hrubý Jeseník and the Rychlebské hory, bringing with it gravel sands and glacial erratics. The peaks were covered by a mountain glacier, remnants of which are the cirque and moraines in Velká kotlina.[2] Rock formations such as Petrovy kameny, Vozka, Obří skály and the summit of Keprník were formed by frost weathering in front of the glacier, and the same origin applies to the rock seas, for example at Břidličná or Suchý vrch.[2] Thanks to the impermeable bedrock, peat bogs formed after the Ice Age at Rejvíz and between Keprník and Vozka. Deeply incised valleys with the waterfalls of Bílá Opava and the Vysoký vodopád on Studený potok are typical of the mountainous character of the area. According to the website of the Protected Landscape Area Administration, gold has been mined in Jeseníky for 3,500 years.[2]