10
Fourth International Meeting in the Pilsen Region
(13–17 November 2013)
The fourth international meeting, which was held in mid-November 2013 in the Pilsen
Region, was attended by eleven Greek teachers and other professionals working in the field
of education and training. Together with their Czech counterparts, they visited the Bohemian
Forest National Park. The two-day environmental workshop was opened by a tour of unique
technical monuments – the Vydra hydroelectric power plant and the national technical monu-
ment Čeňkova Pila. In the Vydra power plant, the project participants saw the exhibition entitled
„The Bohemian Forest Energy“, devoted especially to the Vchynice-Tetov navigation channel.
The visitors watched a short film about the original purpose of the channel – timber floating. The
landscape model depicting the area ranging from the Modrava municipality to the confluence
of the Vydra and Křemelná rivers clearly showed the surge tank of the Water Tower, through
which the water flows into and out of the Vydra power plant in pressure water piping. The visi-
tors were also interested in historical instruments and models of hydroelectric power plants with
active simulation of the technological process. After the theoretical training in the visitor centre,
the participants went to look at the Sedlo reservoir in Srní and the Vchynice-Tetov navigation
channel – first in the Rokyty area, where the visitors also saw an outdoor geological exposure,
and then they went to the beginning of the channel, to the water gate by the bridge (Hradlový
most), which protects the channel up to this date against damage by both ice and floods.
Then the visitors went to Modrava, the central municipality of the Bohemian Forest National
Park where the landscape protection ranks among the top priorities of the state and local gover-
nment bodies. Ing. Antonín Schubert, mayor of Modrava, welcomed the visitors at the premises
of the club house and explained how the regulations and plans reflect in the daily life of local
people and what specifics can be found in education and after-school activities of local children
and youth. After the discussion with the mayor of Modrava, the guests from Crete visited the
Dřevák timber centre where they had the opportunity to try out the work with wood themsel-
ves, learn what things can be made of wood, compare the frequency characteristics of wooden
musical instruments, play the mysterious music instrument called„hůkadlo“, try out whether the
wood is stronger than stone or not and guess the age of wood.
The second part of the workshop was devoted to forestry education where, as a part
of a demonstration lesson, all participants tried out activities aimed at informing pupils and stu-
dents of all ages about forest ecosystems. The meeting was concluded by a visit of the Lüftnerka
Environmental Centre where the visitors from Greece attended a very interesting lecture, looked
around the centre and got acquainted with activities offered by this centre not just to children
and youth.
