Nature

The foothills - the long line of the Low Jeseník, the broken horizon of the Beskydy and Podbeskyd, the Odra winding in multiple meanders, a green belt of meadows with the crowns of massive oaks, lindens and willows, sparkling ponds, curly edges of floodplain forests hiding the dark eyes of pools, distant roofs of villages between the fields . For example, with these fleeting images it would be possible to characterize the landscape, a landscape of which we have few left. The axis of the area is the Odra River entering the PLA from Nízké Jeseník as a fast-flowing stream with a gravel bottom. After a few kilometers near Jeseník nad Odra, the flow in the Moravian Gate floodplain calms down, the river begins to deepen significantly into the soft floodplain clays, and the first of countless meanders appear. Alluvial meadows and ponds are a characteristic and very distinctive feature of the Poodří landscape. They arose on the site of extensive forests during medieval colonization in the course of the 13th and 14th centuries, when the first settlements were established along the Oder tributaries. Their extent has changed many times over the course of centuries of history, as evidenced by pond dams, abandoned pond banks or the remains of agricultural estates. Meadows and pastures were probably the first artificial cultures replacing forest complexes. To this day, a strip of alluvial meadows has been preserved, stretching along both banks of the Odra along the entire length of the territory. This is the largest system of regularly flooded meadows in the Czech Republic, the area of which is more than 2,300 ha. Upon closer examination, the entire seemingly uniform meadow complex breaks down into a colorful mosaic of a number of types of grasslands, which have a different floristic composition depending on the moisture and soil conditions.

The Poodří landscape is a landscape that is rarely seen. An unmissable element of the Poodří forming the landscape of the Oder floodplain is the scattered greenery. The meadows are interspersed with a network of streams and lakes surrounded by reeds and willow trees. The landscape is rich not only in flora but also in fauna. In the surrounding fields, you can observe a number of birds - especially birds of prey (wood buzzard, common kestrel). Of the mammals, the field is home to the field vole, the field hare and the fallow deer can also be seen. Of the nesting wetland and water bird species, we can regularly see the gray heron, the great grebe, and the great goose. Among the ducks, for example, common nettle nests here. Old stands of trees are home to many bird species (wood warbler, white-necked flycatcher). In the local waters, the main breeding fish are common carp and common carp.