Giving Spring Cleaning New Meaning

When we think of ‘spring cleaning’, we often think of dusting those hard-to-reach places, cleaning windows to let the spring sunshine in, and moving out that junk accumulated over those winter months. At CTP, we’re bringing new meaning to ‘spring cleaning’. Have you ever cleaned a forest? It may sound crazy. But, as custodians of 140 hectares of forest that need rejuvenation, it’s necessary to help these forests flourish in the right direction with a little TLC.

On April 9^th, we had 35 parkmakers of all ages – CTP employees and their family members, tenants, and local community members and hunters alike – meet at our forest near Mladá Boleslav, with their dogs of course (if you didn’t know, Czechs loves their dogs!).

This historically industrial area is still home to much of the Czech Republic’s manufacturing industry, namely automotive, including two of our CTParks – CTPark Mladá Boleslav and CTPark Mladá Boleslav II. The forests in this region, and much of the Czech Republic, has fallen victim to bark beetles over the last decades due to monocultural forestry. So, since 2019, CTP has been working with local specialists to restore this 100 hectare forest’s native biodiversity to help make it more resilient and healthy.

The day started off with a fun quiz about bees on the way to the meeting point since CTP is getting very busy with bees of our own – by the end of this year, we will have 24 new beehives across our forests and parks! Together, we removed 830 metres of fencing, installed 10 birdhouses, and collected litter from the 100 hectare forest.

A local specialist put together a programme for kids to learn about animal tracks, where they also received colouring books, face paint, and had fun searching for bunnies. Everyone got to enjoy a traditional Czech guláš, chlebíček sandwiches, and koláčky cakes for lunch. At the end of the day, everyone was rewarded a special hand-decorated gingerbread cookie.