Peatland Chalupská slať

In summer we spent a few days in Šumava (which you may know as the Bohemian Forest) where we wanted to visit and explore its southern part. One of our trips lead us to a remarkable place of peatland named Chalupská slať. The peatland area is represented by 137 hectares and altitude of 950 m. There are peat reserves amounting to 2 340 000 cubic metres.

When you come to the area, there is a small parking lot where you’ll leave your car and continue on foot following a marked path. You’ll come to a raised boardwalk of a nature trail which will take you into quite a different environment.

Birches, mugo pines and spruces are typical trees growing here.

The boardwalk is 260 metres long and leads to a platform on the edge of a peat lake.

The lake with its area of 1,3 hectares and depth of 1,5 metres is the largest peat lake in the Czech Republic.

There are numerous peat islands floating on the surface of the lake, covered in moss and providing living space for rare plant species such as Drosera rotundifolia, Scheuchzeria palustris and Carex paupercula.

While standing on the platform and enjoying the view, we were watching beautiful dragonflies darting here and there in front of us but they were restless and too quick for me to take a photo of any of them. I gave up and focused on calmer scenes.

On our way back we noticed an information centre of the Šumava National Park where we found an assistant ready to help, various brochures and an interactive screen displaying interesting pictures and pieces of information related to the Park.

Because of the big supplies, peat used to be dug at the edge of the area which resulted in partial draining of water and damaging of the peatland. Nowadays the area is part of the first zone of nature protection of the Šumava National Park. After watching the beauty of the lake and its surroundings I’m really glad that there have been people who care and the preservation status has been achieved.