In recent years, conservationists have been plagued by the loss of many bird species, amphibians, butterflies, etc. This irreversible fact has already been noticed by a section of the general public. The main causes of the "disappearance" of the natural fauna of Czech nature are hidden and secretive changes in the management and use of the landscape, changes in the landscape structure, degradation and loss of suitable habitats or global climate change. These phenomena are very difficult for animals to cope with and even have fatal consequences for the populations of some species. This does not leave us cold at Semix Pluso. We decided to get involved in the care of Czech nature and find localities in which we could restore the original character of the landscape.
Our long-term goal is to create natural conditions for the fauna and flora of selected habitats and thus preserve it for the future, for our children. There are not many places in the Opava district where there is room for the reconstruction of natural conditions to suit the widest possible range of animals.
Such a place must be situated in the lowlands and the advantage is an almost perfect plane. Only the valley floodplain of the Opava River meets the outlined conditions. Floodplain forests and the meadows around the river from Krnov to Ostrava no longer exist, they were plowed. This mainly concerns the so-called Hostice meadows. There are only two exceptions to the whole route: Zábřežsko-koutecké louky and meadows between Kozmice and Jilešovice or Kozmické louky. The former are intended for gravel mining, thus sealing their fate. However, cosmic meadows are a real phenomenon.
The fact that such a large area has remained without construction in an otherwise very densely populated landscape is extremely rare. The cause is the occasional flooding of the Opava River, because that is why the area was declared a floodplain. It plays its role even the experience that these meadows are of little agricultural importance. The area was drained decades ago, but never dry enough to make it worthwhile to grow more demanding crops, such as cereals. These circumstances have led us to the idea that the restoration of natural conditions in this locality will not only not cause socio-economic damage, but on the contrary, from an indefinite and undefined area, something that has belonged here for centuries. Something that no longer exists elsewhere and is not visible. We decided to return the water to where it used to be, because that is the only way to return life to these places in full beauty.
A similar "return to the roots" was also realized in other natural localities, which we gradually bought for their uniqueness and chance to return the original character to the landscape. In the cadastre of the village of Raduň, we created a wetland habitat with a diverse life of amphibians and aquatic vegetation on the originally extensively usable area of 1.3 ha. In Kobeřice, we take care of a slope on the north-eastern edge of a gypsum quarry, which is an important remnant of thermophilic communities following the spread of thermophilic elements in the Silesian Lowlands. In Krčmáň near Olomouc, we own an abandoned Strejček quarry, where thermophilic steppe plant communities with a number of endangered plant species occur. and associated in particular invertebrates. All these activities are directly connected with the subject of Semix Pluso's business activities. Within the company, there is a local organization of the Czech Union for Nature Conservation - "Defender" and nature restoration is financed from the company's profit.
I think we can be justifiably proud of our specific contribution to nature conservation.
Ing. Kamil Lisal, director of SEMIX PLUSO, spol. s r.o.