TREES DESERVE OUR CARE
Non-forest greenery from different perspectives

On Tuesday, November 22, 2022, a conference dedicated to old trees took place in Olomouc. During the day, a total of 14 contributions were made, which the authors dedicated to trees as a valuable biotope, the care of greenery outside the forest, or the cultural and social values ​​of trees in our surroundings.

At the beginning, Ondřej Kolařík from ARBO Technologies presented the issue of safe coexistence with trees in cities. He was followed up by Jaroslav Kolařík (SAFE TREES s.r.o.) with the care of senescent trees, Jan Forejt spoke at the arboricultural academy about industry certification in the field of care for non-forest greenery.

Martin Tušer from LEDASCO spoke about trees in the urban landscape and their role in the fight against climate change. On the contrary, Lukáš Čížek from the Biological Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic devoted himself to the role of old trees as carriers of valuable biotopes and a means of protecting biodiversity.

The authors of the program devoted another logical block to trees as a cultural and social phenomenon. In this block, Aleš Rudl from Palacký University focused on Trees as living symbols of our cultural identity, Libor Sedláček (AOPK CR) on Memorial Trees as a tool to strengthen the protection of exceptionally valuable tree species.

After lunch, Dominika Kovaříková focused on the legal protection of trees growing outside the forest, and Karel Kříž (the Czech Union for Nature Conservation Benešov) shared his experience of participating in administrative proceedings for the felling of non-forest greenery.

The legal issue was optimistically lightened by Radim Lokoč (the Czech Union for Nature Conservation Levrekův Ostrov) with a contribution on saving old varieties of fruit trees in North Moravia and Silesia.

The last block was filled with posts about old trees as biotopes. Věra Polochová (AOPK CR, administration of the Poodří Protected Area) presented the results of research on the prevention of mistletoe expansion by spraying in comparison with other methods. On the contrary, Jiří Šafář (AOPK – RP Olomouc) devoted himself to tree cavities and their inhabitants.

The conclusion of the conference included practical interventions, where Pavel Šebek from the Biological Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic spoke about Tree trimming as a key to supporting rare species, and Ivan Bartoš and Petr Libosvár from the ČSOP Studénka about the past, present and partly the future of willows (and other trees) in Poodří.

The program was rich not only in lectures and lecturers, but after a long time it was possible to fill the capacity of the hall. The conference was attended by over 190 participants, both from organizations dedicated to the protection of trees in our area, but especially from the management of municipalities, or from the respective fields that decide on old trees in the respective territories.

This event took place in cooperation with the Czech Union for Nature Conservation Vlašim, the main office of the Czech Union for Nature Conservation and Our Nature within the project „From the life of old trees“ which is supported by a grant from the Norwegian Funds – together for a green Europe.