The tree will travel from Myslivna liška Bystrouška on 16 November. Credit: MENDELU.
Brno, Oct 26 (BD) – This year’s Christmas tree in Brno will be a European Silver Fir, donated by the Masaryk Forest School of Křtiny (ŠLP Křtiny) as traditionally. The tree will travel from Myslivna liška Bystrouška on 16 November; just like last year, it will be transported to Brno by a tow truck.
The tree is growing not far from Olomučany near Blansko. It is 18 metres in height and the crown is approximately 8 metres at its widest point. Foresters estimated the age of the tree to be 50 years old. This is the 34th tree from the University forests dedicated to the city through the Czech Red Cross.
For Christmas trees in cities, the emphasis is on a symmetrical pyramidal crown with the widest possible base and dense foliage. In the case of trees growing in the forest, however, it is difficult to achieve such symmetry.
“People always strictly insist that the Christmas tree should be perfectly straight, without missing a branch, in short, without a single flaw,” explained Lumír Dobrovolný from ŠLP Křtiny. “Maybe it’s time to focus more on the beauty of nature and the story of the tree, to realise what it has been through, what it has resisted while growing for decades in the forest, in its natural environment. This cannot be said about trees grown, for example, on plantations in Denmark, which then, among other things, go to the Christmas market and the Czech Republic.”
“The parameters of the tree are also limited by technical circumstances, such as the accessibility of equipment for felling the tree in the forest, the length of the hauling equipment and the height of the catenary line in Brno,” he added.
The tradition of a Christmas tree in the City Centre was established by writer Rudolf Těsnohlídek after he and his colleagues found an abandoned child while walking in the woods near Bílovice nad Svitavou on 22 December 1919. Těsnohlídek subsequently gave the impetus to establish the Dagmar children’s home. There used to be a money box placed under the Christmas tree where people could make financial donations for the construction of this facility.
“Due to this tradition, we say goodbye to the tree for Brno in the ŠLP Křtiny Forest in Bílovice. This year, it will happen on 16 November,” said Dobrovolný. A short cultural program, the traditional symbolic planting of saplings and the ceremonial handover will begin at the Bystrouška fox hunting lodge at 4pm.
The school forestry enterprise also offers Christmas trees for homes. Every year, several sales weekends are held at the groves, where interested parties can choose and buy saplings from the Bystrouška forest region.
“Just like the Christmas tree for Brno, these trees also have ecological certification and come from both pruning, which is necessary from a growing point of view – otherwise the trees would remain in the forest to decompose – and also from targeted small-area plantings in specific places, for example under power lines. People especially appreciate Christmas trees from university forests to homes for their freshness, the unmistakable smell of the forest, and the fact that they grew in the forest outside Brno,” said Dobrovolný.
More information about the sale of trees in the run-up to Christmas is available at www.slpkrtiny.cz and the social networks of ŠLP Křtiny.
