Silva Regina
7.-11.4. 2024

The sought-after exhibitions on the gallery of Hall Z include Forest education, where especially young visitors become familiar with forest management and the diverse work of foresters in an interactive way.

"Children today are often afraid of the forest, because the biggest scare lives there – the tick. They therefore lose their dexterity, they can not move in the woods and do not even know it is an interesting place for their games and leisure. Therefore, we want to not only show the work of foresters, but also invite children into the forest," says Pavlína Vašíčková from the Forestry Division of the Ministry of Agriculture who sponsors the presentation in SILVA REGINA.

The idea of forest education was founded in the USA 50 years ago as the easiest way to present the forest environment to the general public with its tradition functions. In the Czech Republic, this education has arrived in the 1990’s and more and more forestry organizations have been using these educational activities in the last decade. Experiential learning usually takes place directly in the forest where children experience the forest through all the senses, and verify the information they have from school in reality.

"In the past, forest pedagogy has already been introduced at SILVA REGINA, but this year we approached it a little differently, we have extended the presentation space and work directly with the children. We prepared several habitats where they can learn what the forester must be able to do to take care of the forest. A nice interactive way offers them to try out a number of professional forestry activities that forest teachers explain accordingly to their age, so the programme is fun from beginning to end," says Pavlína Vašíčková, according to whom Forestry education is meant not only for children but for various age groups. "In the morning two classes from Brno schools come here, the afternoon is for the public, but we can always accommodate any candidates - from the smallest children, who assemble our wooden puzzles, to adults, who are provided more detailed information."

Children will learn that the bark beetle is not huge, but measures only a few millimetres. At the hunting station they like to touch the trophies and skins, which they could otherwise hardly encounter. All without exception enjoy working with a compass and are surprised to find that there are forestry maps and foresters have the forest stands exactly labelled. "Children were even intrigued by the fact that when we want to know the age of the tree, we do not have to cut it down, and they try out the bore tested themselves," smiles the organizer of the exhibition, who is  very satisfied with the outcome of the fair so far: "The interest of visitors makes us very happy this year, on the first day of the fair we had a full house from morning to evening. Now we get mainly schoolchildren and they usually leave saying that they really enjoyed it here, which is always good to hear."