Since the 1st of April 2019, the School Forest Enterprise ‘Masaryk Forest’ of Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic has a new director, Prof. Dr. Tomáš Vrška. He is an instrumental person in forest policy who supported the EFI Risk Facility Initiative. Thanks to his snewr position, the Risk Facility network will have now also access to Brno University, the related forest enterprise and to the forestry contacts in the country. This development is of key value in the face of the bark beetle outbreak which has also affected Czech Republic.
Dr. Vrška had been working for a long time as a head of department of forest ecology within the Research Institute ‘Silva Taroucy’ and partly as an academic staff member at the Department of Silviculture (Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology) at Mendel University in Brno, where he obtained his habilitation in the field of silviculture. He had also earlier worked as the head of forest care in National Park Podyjí.
Professor Vrška is very active in forest policy in the Czech Republic and is very well-known within the Czech forestry sector. He has been very engaged within Pro Silva Bohemica for more than two decades – formerly acting as its president and currently vice-president.
The School-Forest Enterprise Masaryk Forest in Křtiny belongs to Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic since 1923. At that time the government of Czechoslovak Republic and the first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, donated this large forest property to the newly established “Agricultural University in Brno”, todays Mendel University in Brno (celebrating 100th anniversary this year).
The School-Forest Enterprise Masaryk Forest in Křtiny consists of 10.205 ha of forest and is an inherent part of Mendel University in Brno as a special-purpose facility. The forest stands create a compact area situated from the real northern border of the city of Brno then extended to the town of Blansko. The whole forest property is characterized by various site conditions valuable both for scientific and lecturing purposes. The altitude ranges from 210 to 574 m a. s. l. The current tree species composition is represented mainly by broadleaves species (62 %) and their portion will continually increase in the future. One of many different valuable parts is also “Klepačov”, that has been undergoing conversion into a “Plenter”-forest for many decades.
From the Network of Forest Risk Facility’s point of view, as well as from the EFI Bonn perspective, we would like to congratulate Tomáš with all our best compliments and with a loud “Mission Success” for the new position! We are happy to have cooperated with him and the colleagues over the past years in various events and campaigns in a very open, transparent and trustful way. This cooperation means an important part of the Forest Risk Facility network and we hope to continue and grow our vision together.
Thank you, Tomáš, for the past, and we are looking forward to the future!
For more Information:
The official statement of Mendel University in Brno
Photo: ŠLP Krtiny
