Nature monument • Horní Bečva • 645–685 m a.s.l.
Paseky on water: the last paseky settlement around a large wetland meadow in the Rožnov area.
A short way above the Horní Bečva dam lies a wet meadow that by the textbook should not be here: peat bogs form in hollows, not on slopes. The water that soaks into Kudlačena cannot get down deep – impermeable clayey beds below the surface hold it, so it seeps only slowly down the slope beneath the surface and keeps the soil permanently wet. In Wallachia a place like this is called a sihla.
The meadow itself is human work: it was made by mowing and grazing. Without them it would close over within a few decades.
Why come here
Waterlogged meadows – sihly – were once common in Wallachia; today Kudlačena is one of the last. And it is they that hold water in the landscape like a sponge: they take it up in rain and let it go slowly in dry weather.
What not to miss
Newts, yellow-bellied toads, salamanders and frogs breed in the pools. Orchids flower on the meadows – marsh helleborine, western marsh orchid, lesser butterfly-orchid and the striking Turkish marsh gladiolus.
When to come
In spring you can hear the amphibians, in May and June the orchids flower, in July the gladiolus. This is a wetland, so expect wet underfoot.
The adders and the newts are only the outcome. The story of Kudlačena is about water – and about how many times people tried to get it out of here.
The sihla
Peat normally forms where water has nowhere to run off – in hollows and depressions. Kudlačena lies on a gently inclined north slope above the valley of the Dížená brook, and yet it is peaty. The bedrock is the reason: below the layer of weathered material lie impermeable clayey beds that the water cannot run through. It seeps through the slope, stays in the soil, and in the permanent wet the plants decay only halfway.
A waterlogged meadow like this is called a sihla in Wallachia. There were never many true peat bogs in the Beskids, but there were plenty of sihly – and most of them are gone. Draining began as early as the interwar republic, and what was left was finished off by socialist collective-farm drainage works. Kudlačena is one of the last, and that is exactly why it is protected.
The meadow as such is not natural, though. Farming kept the wood off it – mowing in late summer, or grazing. The plants that bring conservationists here today are used to precisely that regime: a short cycle of mowing, wet ground and no woody plants.
Dryness by design
A wet meadow is a problem for a farmer – it mows badly and livestock sink into it. So the farmers laced it with a network of drainage ditches – shallow, hand-dug channels meant to carry the water away.
After 1975 the local JZD took the farming over. It concentrated on the drier ground around – the ditches stopped being maintained, the drainage system fell apart and the unmanaged ground began to grow over with self-seeded growth. Systematic management – mowing and clearing the woody growth – came back only in the nineties. One thing has not come back: round-leaved sundew. This carnivorous plant of peat bogs used to grow here in numbers, but it did not survive the years of growing over, and in recent years it has not been confirmed at Kudlačena.
Care returns
In 1994 conservationists dug about ten small pools here for a purely practical reason: amphibians need standing water to breed, and the drained meadow had stopped offering it. The pools brought it back – newts, yellow-bellied toads and salamanders live in them today.
The rest of the management is dull and endless: mow the grass and clear the self-seeded growth, so that the meadow does not close over. Without it, Kudlačena would be an ordinary waterlogged spruce wood within a few decades, and neither the orchids nor the gladiolus would survive in it.
In 2009 conservationists opened Kudlačena to the public: two information panels about the local nature and history went up, along with a tidied spring and a bench for visitors. Since then it has been a destination for a walk – two hours from Horní Bečva and back, with a detour to a wetland that survived.
Kudlačena is not alone in this. The same story – a wet meadow all but killed by drainage and the end of mowing – is told a few kilometres away by the nature monument Poskla and by the meadow Pod Juráškou. The round-leaved sundew has gone from Kudlačena; at Pod Juráškou, according to those who manage the site, mowing and the return of grazing are bringing it back.
Three different environments meet on not quite six hectares – and with them three different sets of species. When a condition changes, the species is the first thing to go: that is exactly what happened here to the sundew.
Kudlačena is not a collection of rarities. It is a few conditions in one place: water held by clay, pools of standing water and dry edges in the sun. Each of them has its own tenants.
Sedge-moss communities on permanently wet soil. Besides the orchids there is marsh marigold, marsh violet, marsh hawk's-beard, common lousewort and sweet flag. The balance is fragile: the soil only has to dry a little and a species that was common here is gone – like the sundew at the end of the row.
What you will meet here
Dactylorhiza majalis
The most striking orchid here – a deep purple spike on the wet meadow. It flowers from May; come in May and June for the best chance of catching it in flower.
Foto: Jörg Hempel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
Gladiolus imbricatus
A purple flower spike on a slender stem, flowering in summer. One of the most striking plants here – outside the protected meadows you will hardly meet it around.
Foto: Dr. Killer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Epipactis palustris
An orchid of wetlands with white and pink flowers marked in crimson; it flowers in June and July. It grows right in the waterlogged ground – look from the track.
Foto: Bernd Haynold, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Eriophorum angustifolium
After flowering you can pick it out from a distance – white tufts that look like cotton wool. It is a typical plant of peat bogs.
Foto: Kim Hansen, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Platanthera bifolia
A white orchid with two large leaves at the base. Its scent is stronger towards evening – it draws the night moths that pollinate it.
Foto: Hans Hillewaert, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Menyanthes trifoliata
Three-part leaves and white fringed flowers in spring. It grows where the ground is really wet – a reliable sign that the sihla still works.
Foto: Uoaei1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
No longer hereDrosera rotundifolia
A carnivorous plant of peat bogs that used to grow here in numbers. In recent years its presence at Kudlačena has not been confirmed – it is disappearing from other Beskydy sites as well, and holds on mainly in the Obidová nature monument.
Foto: Migas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0Draining the meadow took from the amphibians the water they breed in – the pools gave it back. About ten of them were made here in 1994. Do not put a hand into the water and do not step in; the spawn and the larvae are fragile.
What you will meet here
Ichthyosaura alpestris
In spring it is in the pools – in the breeding season the male has blue flanks and a bright orange belly. The rest of the year it hides on land under stones and wood.
Foto: Anevrisme, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Salamandra salamandra
Black with bold yellow markings. It comes out in damp weather and towards evening, mainly after rain. Do not pick it up – the skin gives off an irritant secretion.
Foto: Skot, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Bombina variegata
A small toad of shallow pools. You are more likely to know it by its voice – a quiet “unk, unk” – and by the yellow and black belly it shows when threatened.
Foto: Christian Fischer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Rana temporaria
The commonest frog here, with a dark patch behind the eye. It gathers in the pools early in spring to lay its eggs; otherwise you will meet it far from water too.
Foto: Richard Bartz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5
Bufo bufo
Squat, warty, slow. In spring it travels to the water to lay strings of eggs.
Foto: Mike Krüger, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0To the north the wetland turns into dry meadows of mat-grass – a tough grass that stands poor, drought-prone soil; bilberry and heath speedwell grow here too. Reptiles bask in the sun by the track – keep to the track and your dog on a lead.
What you will meet here
Vipera berus
The only venomous snake in Czechia; it is known by the dark zigzag along its back. It is shy and will move away of its own accord. Keep to the track, wear stout footwear, and put no hand into the grass or under stones. If you are bitten, call 155.
Foto: Benny Trapp, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Zootoca vivipara
A small brown lizard, most often caught sight of basking by the track. As the name says, it bears live young – an adaptation to colder mountain country.
Foto: Charles J. Sharp, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Carlina acaulis
A stalkless silvery flower head on the dry meadow. It closes in damp weather and opens in the sun – a living hygrometer.
Foto: Bernd Haynold, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Calluna vulgaris
It flowers purple only in late summer and autumn, when the flowers are over elsewhere. It grows on the poor, drier edges of Kudlačena.
Foto: Andreas Eichler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0The photographs of individual species are taken from Wikimedia Commons (author and licence given with the photo) – they show the species, not a particular plant or animal from Kudlačena.
Timeline
earlier
The wet meadows above the valley of the Dížená are mown in late summer, or grazed. The open ground and the wetland flora are a by-product of small-scale farming.
until 1974
The meadows are farmed on a small scale and extensively. The wetlands are laced with a system of drainage ditches – the water is meant to run off the meadow.
after 1975
The drier parts are farmed by the local JZD, the drainage system falls apart and self-seeded woody growth moves onto the unmanaged ground.
1989
The site was declared by Okresní národní výbor Vsetín in a decree of December 1988 taking effect on 1 January 1989 – first as a protected natural formation, today it is a nature monument.
the 1990s
Mowing and the clearing of self-seeded growth come back to the meadows. Without regular management the ground would close over and the wetland communities would be lost.
1994
Conservationists dug about ten small pools at Kudlačena. They bring back the standing water that amphibians need to breed.
2009
Conservationists put up two information panels at Kudlačena, tidy the spring and build a bench. Kudlačena opens to visitors.
today
The protected site covers not quite six hectares. Several species of orchid and the Turkish marsh gladiolus grow on it, and newts and yellow-bellied toads breed in the pools.
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Leave the car in the village and find the yellow waymarks towards Kladnatá – sedlo. The dam is a short way from here, and you can lengthen the way back around it.
The path climbs through paseky and wood above the valley. Cottages stand scattered around the waterlogged meadow – exactly the country Kudlačena came out of.
Turn left at the signpost. After about a hundred metres you are standing at the meadow – there are information panels, a spring and a bench.
A different way back: you can carry on up the yellow route to the Kladnatá junction, or return to the village and walk round the dam.
From Horní Bečva to Kudlačena is about an hour's walk uphill. Allow half an hour to look round the meadow and read the panels.
The common adder lives here – venomous, but shy; it strikes only when cornered. Keep to the track, put no hand into the grass, wear stout footwear and keep your dog on a lead. Bites are rare, but they still belong with a doctor.
You are walking on a peaty meadow: the ground is waterlogged and after rain you sink into it. Waterproof footwear pays off even in summer.
You are in a nature monument. Do not step into the pools or the vegetation, do not pick the orchids, and leave Kudlačena free of litter.
There is a bench and a spring by the wetland. The nearest refreshments and toilets are in Horní Bečva.
The Beskydy name for a peaty meadow on a slope – the water in it is held by impermeable clayey bedrock. Kudlačena is one of the last left in the Rožnov area.
Conservationists dug them in 1994 to give the amphibians back the standing water that draining the meadow had taken from them.
Without mowing and the clearing of self-seeded growth, woodland would take it over within a few decades and the wetland communities – the orchids and the gladiolus – would be lost.
From May to July. In spring you can hear the amphibians, in May and June the orchids flower, and in July the Turkish marsh gladiolus.
Yes. You may meet the venomous common adder here, but it is shy and strikes only when cornered. Keeping to the track, keeping your hands out of the grass and wearing stout footwear is enough.
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