Volunteer to protect the Jizera Mountains, Czech Republic

In the softly sloping Jizera Mountains, you’ll take temperature, pH, conductivity, and oxygen readings and collect water samples from more than 30 streams and reservoirs. You’ll also help examine and catch reintroduced fish and sample other aquatic organisms. Trekking through beech and spruce forests, you’ll evaluate tree vitality, collect soil and vegetation samples, and study erosion and plant succession. After a day in the field, you’ll be trained to test samples and record data in the lab.

In your free time, you can travel through the beautiful Jizera Mountains on foot or by bike, visit nearby castles, glass factories, botanical gardens, museums, cafes and restaurants.

You’ll stay in a welcoming mountain pension, a 200-year old stone and wood farmhouse, in the historic Bedrichov village. The pension has double rooms, an internet connection, hot showers, television, sauna, and simple laundry facilities. You’ll also use the pension as your briefing centre and field lab and will take continental breakfasts there. You’ll take packed lunches into the field and, after a full day in the field and lab, wander to a neighboring restaurant for substantial, three-course traditional Czech dinners with sweet and savory dumplings, vegetables, soups and potatoes.

The Jizera Mountains region is found in the humid temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. This area is on an upper plain at an elevation of 800 meters, with an almost complete (83%) forest coverage. Although at the beginning of the 18th century forest stands of common beech and silver fir still dominated the region, Norway spruce became a prevailing species during the 19th century. In the second half of the last century, spruce forests came to comprise about 90% of the whole forest cover in the Jizera Mountains.

The upper plain of the Jizera Mountains is popular for hiking. It is easy to reach the highest tops, which are Smrk (1,124 meters) and Jizera (1,122 meters). The gentle slopes are also convenient for cross-country skiing during the winter. At the end of the 19th century, the first touring club in Liberec initiated trail-blazing and lookout towers in this region.

Detailed Itinerary:

Day 1
Rendezvous and Cultural Programme

Day 2
Individual sightseeing in Old Prague; meeting with Josef Krecek; departure for the field by minibus; arrival in Bedrichov; introduction to the project.

Days 3-8
Departure for the field; fieldwork; data processing and laboratory work; lectures, round-table discussions, or recreational time.

Day 9
Recreational Day

Days 10-13
Similar to Days 3-8

Day 14
The team will return to Prague from the field on Friday (the day before the departure). On Friday night, the team will have a farewell dinner/party. Volunteers will stay in the Komenskeho hostel and the breakfast on Saturday morning (departure day) will be included.

Day 15
Volunteers can depart whenever is convenient after breakfast.

Is this trip for you?
Staff members will instruct volunteers before and during fieldwork, laboratory work, and data processing. Lectures by staff members and visiting scientists are planned on topics including; changes of the chemical climate and its monitoring on remote sites, landscape ecology, watershed management, applied hydrology, bio-geo-chemistry of watersheds, limnology, ecology of fish, and alternative forestry.

Team members will hike in the mountains to take samples from rain gauges and fog gauges installed at several different sites, from about 30 stream sections and six reservoirs. Additionally, you will sample the soil and herbaceous vegetation at several transects in watersheds and underground biomass of the plants and grass, dry and weigh it, and measure the leaf area. Finally, you will compare visual characteristics of forest stands with the measured electric resistance in conductive layers of tree stems and evaluate the vitality of different forest stands and plantations.

Fieldwork will be conducted for 5-7 hours per day, and laboratory work, including computer time, will take 1-3 hours per day. As you will be trained in all research techniques and will be assisted by staff members, no specialized experience or skill is needed for participation.

Volunteers must have a good level of physical fitness with endurance for long hikes; be able to walk 1-7 km/0.6-4.3 miles off-track each day at a moderate pace. Some research will be undertaken from boats, though participation in this aspect of the study is not mandatory and can be substituted with shore-based work for those uncomfortable in boats. For safety purposes, those who wish to participate in the lake activities must be able to swim.

Past volunteers rated this project as moderate to strenuous and wished they had spent more time improving their physical condition for the fieldwork. It is strongly recommended that you spend time prior to this expedition hiking in your boots (to ensure they are broken in) and improving your cardiovascular fitness. A regular exercise program that involves walking outdoors is important to ensure you are prepared and have sufficient strength to stabilize your joints when hiking on uneven surfaces.