Meadows The White Carpathian meadows are the most outstanding feature of the area. In the beginning of the 20th century the acreage of meadows was much larger than today. After World War II a considerable part was ploughed up or excessively fertilised, but also lack of management contributed to their degeneration. The area of preserved species-rich grassland amounts to 1300 hectares in reserves including their buffer zones and over 2700 hectares in the highest protection zone (zone I) of the Protected Landscape Area. With over 70 species of vascular plants typically counted per square metre and up to 103 species per 24 m2, the White Carpathian grassland communities belong to the most species-rich of Central Europe. Their richness is reflected in the name commonly given by the local people: "flower meadows". What makes them truly unique is their diverse and plentiful orchid assemblage. Most common are Gymnadenia conopsea, Listera ovata, Platanthera bifolia, and Traunsteinera globosa. Neither Orchis mascula nor O. militaris are rare. In the northeastern part, Dactylorhiza sambucina and Orchis morio are quite abundant. Real jewels are Anacamptis pyramidalis, far more numerous here than anywhere else in Czechia, and Ophrys fuciflora, scattered all over the White Carpathians but altogether absent from the rest of the country. Typical are large numbers of xerothermic species, such as Chamaecytisus virescens, Erysimum odoratum, Euphorbia villosa, Inula ensifolia, Iris variegata, Lathyrus latifolius, Linum flavum, Ophrys fuciflora, Ornithogalum brevistylum, Serratula lycopifolia, and Veronica orchidea. Some rare xerothermic species include Aster amellus, A. linosyris, Danthonia alpina, Globularia punctata, Ornithogalum sphaerocarpum, Orthantha lutea, Phlomis tuberosa, Quercus pubescens, and Veratrum nigrum. The meadows give home to several other plants found nowhere else in Czechia, including Hungarian pea (Lathyrus pannonicus subsp. pannonicus), giant lousewort (Pedicularis exaltata), paniculate speedwell (Veronica spuria), and fleawort (Tephroseris moravica subsp. longifolia). The gems of the local mycoflora include many species of bright-coloured waxcaps (Hygrocybe), grassland mushrooms considered most threatened in Europe. Most common among them are Hygrocybe coccinea, H. flavescens, H. pratensis, H. psittacina, H. punicea, and H. virginea. Thanks to their diverse flora, the White Carpathian meadows also harbour a very diverse fauna. They provide refuge to a number of rare birds, e.g. quail (Coturnix coturnix), corncrake (Crex crex), meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis), corn bunting (Miliaria calandra), whinchat (Saxicola rubetra), and stonechat (Saxicola torquata). A common bird of prey throughout the area is the honey buzzard (Pernis apivorus), thriving on a rich supply of bees and wasps provided by the meadows. The flower meadows are rich in butterflies, with Colias myrmidone, Brenthis hecate, Maculinea alcon, M. arion, and Lopinga achine as the most typical species. Rare invertebrates include preying mantis (Mantis religiosa), the harvestmen Zacheus crista and Egaenus convexus, the crab spider Atypus piceus, and the buprestid beetle Anthaxia hungarica. The grassland sites in the southwest are notable for the common presence of the orb-web spider Argiope bruennichi. Meadow management An essential factor determining the appearance of the White Carpathian landscape is the long-term human impact. Also its biological diversity has developed in close connection with human activity. Farming practices are therefore an indispensable actor in the preservation of the region's biodiversity. This is particularly true for the species-rich hay-meadows, which used to be mowed annually and sometimes grazed in autumn by sheep and cattle. Today, large plots are usually mown by share-holding agricultural businesses, private farmers and NGOs, equipped with machinery. In case of easy terrain, they use tractors and balers, turning to portable bush mowers where it gets rugged. Volunteers and a portion of private owners, who mostly have smaller plots to work on, are still using scythes, rakes and pitchforks as their main tools. The management plans for nature reserves encourage additional grazing in the autumn months, and in some cases allow extensive pasturing as the principal form of land use. As meadow management is currently unprofitable, the extent of the area managed depends on subsidies of the ministries of the environment and agriculture. This situation is however unsustainable, and making hay-meadow management sustainable again is therefore the greatest economic and ecological problem of today. Solutions are sought in alternative use of the hay and extensive pasturing, in which the PLA Administration, farmers and non-governmental organisations collaborate. The Ministry of Agriculture has already developed incentives for revival of animal husbandry. Meadow restoration and recreation The management of existing meadows is complemented with rescuing meadow plots abandoned in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of them are found on steep hillsides, in rugged or faraway places, practically inaccessible to agricultural machinery. Restoration of these sites includes cutting scrub or thick layers of grass and their subsequent burning on the spot, completed by regular mowing in the years to follow. This work has proved to bring encouraging results. But now that many local farmers have come to the conclusion that certain parts of their arable fields cannot be cultivated cost-effectively, there is growing need to convert them to hay meadows or pastures. The practical objectives of this meadow recreation consist in providing the farmers with local-ecotype seed mixtures and developing economically viable reseeding techniques. As the first step, a seed bank of 100 hand-gathered meadow plants has been set up since 1993. The seeds have then been cultivated in monocultures. By 1998, the overall amount of seed produced reached 250 kilograms, and local seed mixtures were composed. Ever since, over 0.5 km2 of arable land per year has been turned into grassland. Parallel to this, several "regrassing" methods are being tried out and monitored to lower the costs of seeding large areas. Monitoring Since the end of the 1980s the impact of meadow management on vegetation and species richness has been monitored in a growing number of permanent quadrats. In one nature reserve the impact of introduced roe deer on species composition was studied. Preliminary results indicate that its effect is negligible. In another nature reserve spontaneous succession on an abandoned field surrounded by a meadow was monitored for a period of 12 years. The field soon developed into grassland, and even some orchids have appeared by now. Certoryje National Nature Reserve is the most important research site. Here, several monitoring programmes have been developed to find out how vegetation changes and plants move under the influence of mowing (with different intensity), fertilising and abandoning using various starting situations. Results have shown that by resuming mowing on abandoned sites, a meadow can be restored within a few years on dry sites. But it takes two or three decades on sites dominated by Purple Moor-grass (Molinia arundinacea). Abandoning grassland management leads again to encroachment of this grass and subsequent decrease in species diversity. As the impact of pasturing with different intensity rates on the White Carpathian grasslands is insufficiently known, pastures all over the protected area are currently being monitored. Final results of this project will be available in 2005. Another monitoring programme concerns a field experiment set up in 1999 to investigate the establishment of hay meadow vegetation on arable land after a regional mixture was sown. The first results indicate that sown strips can provide a lower cost alternative to field scale sowing of regional seed mixtures.