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Ancient coppice woodlands are forest stands of coppice origin with a long-term continual development and preserved typical natural and historic elements of old coppices. Significant natural elements in ancient coppices include polycormons of coppice shoots, pollard trees, trees with holes, dendrotelms, reserved trees, ecotones, glades and significant plant and animal species. Significant historic elements of localities with ancient coppices include archaeological monuments, boundary ditches and walls, boundary stones, boundary trees, myths and legends, sacral objects, old roads and paths, technical objects and plough land remainders. The paper presents differentiation of assumptions for the occurrence of ancient coppices in the territory of the Czech Republic using the COPF coefficient and examples of results from basic regional inventory (Kuřim region) and detailed local survey (locality Lebeďák) of coppice-originated forests. The extinction of the phenomenon of ancient coppice woodlands would mean irreparable impoverishment of the natural and cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a sociological analysis of the image of a 'good village', as portrayed in the annual Czech competition Village of the Year. It focuses on the positive representations attached to the rural in the political and expert discourse. The analysis is rooted in cultural rural sociology and in its study of rural idyll. It is argued that a specific kind of rural idyll is produced in the competition. This idyll is analysed using the photographs submitted to the competition by the villages themselves. A combination of visual methods is employed to uncover the positive values attached to the images. The results show that activity and social life play a key role in the image of a 'good village' thus produced. On the other hand, there are virtually no references to agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first biocorridors were established in the territory of the Czech Republic in the 1990s. One of them, planted on a former agricultural land, was the Radějov biocorridor. This paper deals with the growth and development of trees and shrubs on three permanent research plots in 1993 - 2012. Repeated inventories of trees as well as monitoring of their biometrical parameters were carried out in both tree and shrub layers. The number of trees decreases with the increasing level of stand canopy. Moreover, mean heights, diameters and crown projection areas of selected woody plants were compared. Under the given conditions, the growth of these woody plants can be positively evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]