1000 hectares of forest to be felled in Šumava National Park

The Czech Republic’s Šumava National Park in the south-west of the country will undergo the felling of 1000 hectares of forest in the autumn, according to the park’s new director Jiří Mánek. The move will see trees which have grown in the last thirty years on sites of former farming activity removed in order to restore agriculture in the affected areas. Under the plans, one family will farm on roughly 50 hectares rented plots. However, environmentalists, who support the farming plans, remain critical of the felling, arguing that plenty of clearings already exist in the park that could be utilized for agriculture.