We keep improving habitats for black grouse

Out of a total of 43 Czech project sites, measures at three sites are aimed directly at supporting the black grouse. The black grouse is constantly present around and its abundance is verified every year during the spring mating period. Namely, these are the localities of Černý Kříž and Dobrovodské louky in the Vltava floodplains, where a significant part of the Šumava population of the black grouse is concentrated and the locality of Novosvětská slata in the valley of Vydří potok above Borová Lada.

In these sites, the water regime of peatlands, which are a key habitat for black grouse, will be restored. It uses them for nesting, as a source of feed and, last but not least, it serves as a shelter. The presence of open areas is also very important, which the black grouse prefers as a mating ground. We try to support the offer of these areas by mowing wet meadows around peat bogs. We have been mowing at the Dobrovodské louky (5.7 ha) and Novosvětská slatě (1.6 ha) sites since 2019. We will not start mowing at Černý Kříž until 2021. Lease relations were not clearly resolved there until last summer, and in the autumn 2020, construction work on the restoration of the water regime took place, and were successfully completed on time.

Due to the fact that we were forced to postpone mowing at the Černý Kříž site for two years compared to the original plan, we selected several alternative localities – wet meadows adjecent to peatland habitats, where the black grouse was observed in the past. As in 2019, last year we mowed in the Raškov site in Jelenské údolí (1.7 ha) and in Nový Údolí near Dolnokrásnohoská road (0.4 ha). We have recently started mowing at the Březová Lada site in the Teplá Vltava valley, where cattle grazed until then, which, unfortunatelly, caused damage to peaty meadows. A total of four plots with a total area of ​​3.4 ha were mowed at this site. Together, almost 13 ha of wet and peaty meadows were mowed in all project sites in 2020. During the project, we will continue mowing in all the above-mentioned sites, until the final year 2024.

Mowed meadows at Březová Lada site