Na Plachtě 3 Nature Reserve: Protected Geographic Boundaries and Landscape Atlas of the Královéhradecký kraj

The Na Plachtě landscape has been shaped by human activity for centuries. The first documented references to the area date to the 15th century, when the Jáma and Plachta fishponds were established. Settlement expanded in 1766 with the construction of houses along what is now Brněnská street, followed in 1864 by the founding of the Petrof piano factory. In 1897 the area was taken over by the military as a training ground, and between 1918 and 1939 the site also served as a military airfield. Through the early 20th century the land remained largely open grassland used for grazing, until grazing was banned in 1924 for flight safety reasons.

Intensive military use over the following decades, including sand quarrying in 1945 to 1946 that created the central pond now located in neighboring Na Plachtě 2, kept the landscape unusually disturbed and open. The military continued to use the area, to varying degrees, until 2009, when part of the land was transferred to the Czech Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection (Agentura ochrany přírody a krajiny České republiky).

Conservationists had been pressing for formal protection of Na Plachtě since the 1980s. In 1992 a proposal for a natural science park combining ecological, research, and educational functions was put to the authorities. In 1998 the neighboring sites Na Plachtě 1 and Na Plachtě 2 were declared as natural monuments, and these were later merged into the single Na Plachtě reserve in 2013 and 2014. In November 2009 a petition initiated by NGOs and signed by about 14,000 residents, handed personally to the regional governor by Dan Bárta, called for the protection of a further adjacent area. This led to the formal declaration of the Na Plachtě 3 natural monument on 13 July 2012. In 2020 a new proposal emerged to route a road to an industrial zone through part of the monument, highlighting the ongoing tension between urban expansion and habitat protection.

The main conservation objective at Na Plachtě 3 is the preservation and restoration of early successional stages, along with the protection of amphibian and reptile wintering sites. This objective is implemented through a continuous management regime that combines mosaic mowing, invasive plant removal, grazing, mechanical soil disturbance (manual, mechanical, and using horses), heath burning, periodic pool maintenance, and cautious cleanup of illegal waste dumps where old deposits now serve as hibernation habitat.

The reserve sits within the European network of protected areas concerned with habitat and species conservation, and 19 species present across the Na Plachtě complex are considered of European importance. The site also illustrates the broader conservation challenge of protecting small, biodiversity-rich reserves embedded in urban and peri-urban landscapes, where hydrology, light pollution, invasive species, and pressure for new roads and housing all act on a fragile system.

The 2012 declaration of Na Plachtě 3 itself was a direct conservation outcome of public mobilization, demonstrating the importance of civic engagement in protecting small but ecologically significant natural areas in Czech cities.

The site carries a layered human history that remains visible in its landscape. Centuries-old fishpond foundations, nineteenth-century industrial expansion along the Brněnská corridor, the long military footprint from the late Habsburg era through both world wars and the Cold War, and the contemporary transition to a community-managed urban nature reserve all leave their mark. The 2009 petition that led to the monument's creation, supported by around 14,000 signatures from local residents and NGOs and handed to the regional governor by the well-known Czech singer Dan Bárta, is itself part of the cultural story of Czech civic environmentalism in the early 21st century.

Today the reserve functions as a green commons for Hradec Králové, used daily by residents of the surrounding neighborhoods for walking, dog walking, and quiet recreation, while also serving as an outdoor classroom for local schools and a research site for biologists and ecologists studying sandy heath systems.

Na Plachtě 3 stands out as one of the most species-rich protected sites per hectare in the Czech Republic, with a combined Na Plachtě inventory of roughly 2,250 animal species, 720 higher plants, 69 bryophytes, and 107 fungi, including 19 species of European importance. It is unusual in preserving a genuine mosaic of dry heaths, exposed sands, peat meadows, scattered shrubs, and seasonal pools within a lowland Czech city, an arrangement that requires constant active management to maintain.

The reserve's creation itself, following a 14,000-signature petition personally delivered by Dan Bárta in 2009, is a notable example of community-driven conservation, and the site's continued protection depends on balancing everyday public use against pressures from urban expansion, invasive species, and proposed new road infrastructure.

The site lies in the warm T2 climatic region, with long, warm, dry summers and short, mild winters with limited snow cover. Spring and early summer are particularly favorable for visiting, when the dry heaths are in bloom, butterflies such as the scarce and dusky large blues are on the wing, and amphibians are active around the seasonal pools. Late summer and early autumn offer drier conditions and a different character of vegetation, including the peak of heathland flowering. Winter visits are possible but quieter, with fewer active species and only brief snow cover typical of this warm lowland climate.