Czech bark-beetle war spreads to Prague

Some 100 opponents of the tree cutting attended the rally, while a coach with Sumava residents who support the measure arrived in the place, too.

The two groups communicated without mutual attacks.

Some ten police watched the demonstrators.

The former demonstration was held under the auspices of the environmentalist group Friends of the Earth. Organisers demanded immediate end to the tree cutting in the spontaneous development zone Ptaci potok (Bird Brook) and widening of such zones.

They also wanted the SNP representatives to respect the views of the scientists who disagree with the current management in the Sumava.

Some 20 Sumava residents unfolded banners with slogans saying "We are not less than bark beetle" and "Do not destroy our homes" and voiced support to SNP director Jan Strasky who recently ordered the tree cutting.

Opponents of the strategy demand Strasky's dismissal.

Petr Vorisek, from the Czech Ornithological Society, said the organisation would file a complaint with the European Commission over the tree felling as the measure did not correspond with the conditions of the programme Natura 2000.

Some 50 activists are blocking the work of loggers at the Na Ztracenem locality in the Sumava Mountains today.

Some of them are staging tree sit-ins.

The SNP is pressed for time because the bark beetle will start flying out and attack other healthy trunks soon.

Some 5,000 trees have been marked down for cutting.

The activists insist on the view that the SNP has no right to cut trees in the locality.

The SNP is afraid that if the trees are not cut down, the bark-beetle outbreak will spread to the surrounding forests.

The solution to the bark-beetle outbreak is one of the main environmental disputes in the Czech Republic.

Environmentalists say the forests in the SNP should be left to spontaneous development as nature itself will sooner or later defeat the pest while the spruce stands on which it feeds and which were seeded in the area in the 19th century will eventually be replaced with other, mostly deciduous trees that are immune to the bark-beetle.

On the other hand, locals say this may last decades and argue that they cannot watch passively while the forests are being annihilated.

Author: ČTK
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