Šumava National Park

Šumava National Park is a national park in the South Bohemian Regions of the Czech Republic along the border with Germany and Austria. They protect a little-inhabited area of the mountain range of the same name, the Šumava. Since 1990 it has been a protected biosphere reserve of UNESCO.The Šumava Range is covered by the most extensive forest in Central Europe, whose natural composition was, however, changed and today spruce plantations prevail in most of the area. In many places non-native spruce varieties were planted. These are not well adapted to the harsh local climate and are therefore susceptible to a range of elements, such as strong winds and bark beetle . Numerous large plateaux with raised peat bogs, glacial lakes and remnants of primeval forests complete a mosaic of habitats which are little disturbed by human settlements as most of the predominantly German speaking inhabitants were expelled after the World War II and the area became a part of the deserted zone along the Eastern Bloc border. Since the 1970s there has existed a stable population of lynxes.