Lost Valley

Surely you have already seen a lot of beautiful shots of Czech forests. Over the last ten years, Czech forests have gained the popularity of not only domestic but also foreign landscape photographers. Unfortunately, in the last 5 years, I have seen more and more deforestation on a scale that I do not understand. I am not a forester, an ecologist or a farmer, so I can't understand it from a professional point of view. I am a photographer, I understand composition and light. I spend a lot of time looking for the most beautiful places possible. These are often places in areas protected by law. However, just outside the borders of these areas or on the way to these locations, I observe places that are very difficult for me to take pictures of. One such place is this - slopes in the Beskydy Mountains, in the immediate vicinity of the Kněhyně National Nature Reserve. I wanted to take a photo that would hurt to look at it. You should be uncomfortable with that. You should see the last remnants of trees that once stood in the middle of a rich and dense forest. After mining, there are places where no photographer will go for a long time. Even for the average tourist or cyclist, these are often places that are difficult to penetrate. Many people have probably experienced what it's like to walk on a path driven by heavy mining equipment and machinery. From my point of view, it is definitely better to take pictures of dry forest destroyed by bark beetles than harvested forest. I would say that mining on a scale that we can now observe in the Czech Republic is unnecessary and counterproductive. I consider it a lot of wasted time, energy and work. Beskydy, Czech Republic, 2021.