History of the Enterprise

Training Forest Enterprise Masaryk Forest in Křtiny (TFE) is an organizational unit of Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno (MZLU) established in 1923 mainly for its Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology (LDF). Educational programmes of forest engineering, landscape engineering and timber engineering taught at the Faculty are based on a rational utilization of the Training Forest Enterprise as a unique special-purpose facility with a number of forest, environmental and wood technology demonstration objects and –last but not least- as an excursion and educational facility of entirely exceptional significance.

The very first step leading to the foundation of TFE was the fact that a self-contained University of Agriculture (VŠZ) was constituted by Act No. 460/1919 Gaz. in Brno with two lines of study. One of them was the Department of Forestry with four years of study, which soon showed a need of practical training in the field that resulted in the establishment of a training estate. This appeared a very fortunate idea and the historically proven image of the university forestry education in Brno has been greatly amplified by the existence of TFE.

TFE is the oldest training estate in the sector of the CR Ministry of Education. It was struggled for already by one of the first VŠZ chancellors, Professor in forest management Rudolf Haša (1881-1963), and with him the whole academic staff since the time of its constitution. In 1920, a commission was established as proposed by the Dean of the Forestry Department, Ing. Josef Černý, which began to prepare a purchase and building of the training forest estate in Adamov. Based on negotiations concerning the solution of a land reform on Liechtenstein estates, the Ministry of Agriculture of Czechoslovak Republic awarded the forest estate of Adamov to the University of Agriculture in Brno by the Decree no. 29.636/Ia 1922. The act of the farm assumption by the University took place on 15-17 February 1923 with the effect from 1 January 1923. The Training Farm was managed according to principles defined in the Act no. 404/1922 Gaz. with an emphasis on the special-purpose of the facility and its paedagogic tasks. The head of its Board of Management was in one voice elected Josef Opletal, Professor in forest logging and technology (1863-1953). Enthusiasm accompanying the adaptation of the Křtiny chateau and the successful incorporation of the estate into the process of education at the Forestry Department of VŠZ Brno manifested among other things also in a request that the Adamov Forest Estate would be renamed to the Training Estate of Masaryk Forest . In his letter Ref.no. D/6292/1931 of 12 September 1931, the first president of Czechoslovak Republic, T.G. Masaryk expressed his assent and the Ministry of Agriculture of Czechoslovak Republic issued the Decree no. 118.642/V/16-1931 by which the facility acquired a new name – Training Forest Estate Masaryk Forest of the University of Agriculture in Brno.

Prof. Rudolf Haša (1881–1963)

In the period of the 1st Czechoslovak Republic, the Forestry Department at the Brno University of Agriculture and the Training Forest Estate of Masaryk Forest were fortunate to have excellent and famous forest experts standing at the formation of the first board of professors such as Rudolf Haša, Ferdinand Müller, Antonín Dyk, Josef Opletal, Josef Konšel, August Bayer, Alois Tichý and other. Their pioneering ideas and expertise were used preferably at the Training Forest Estate that became their experimental workshop whose operation they directly steered and improved the technical standard of employees by being in permanent contact with them. The professors took over a well tended forest estate which was in the past influenced by outstanding foresters such as Leopold Grabner and Julius Wiehl. The professors continued in the hitherto introduced forest management systems and results, developing them further and introducing advanced technologies in forestry and wood technology.

At the time of German occupation (1939-1945), the training farm was given a new name by the Decree of the Ministry of Agriculture no. 56.643/VIII/A/1/1940, viz Training Forest Farm Headquarters in Brno and its seat was moved from Adamov to Brno. It got under a trusteeship and was allocated to the direct and technical administration of State Forests and Farms Headquarters in Hodonín. Efforts at its dissolution failed. There were some considerations about a transfer of the headquarters from Hodonín to Brno. After the liberation in 1945, the farm activities were restored in their pre-war scope.

Prof. Josef Konšel (1875–1958)

A milestone of the post-war period, regardless of events in 1948, became the issue of the University Law no. 58/1950 Gaz. that led to organizational changes. Training Forest Farm was renamed to Training Forest Establishment which would be no longer steered by the Board of Management. A person responsible for the management became director of the training forest establishment, reporting directly to the Chancellor of the University. A newly constituted Advisory Board whose chairman became vice-dean for the Training Forest Establishment was to negotiate and approve the conception of the further development of the training facility and to methodologically steer its special-purpose activities. The accession of young generation at the beginning of the 1950s brought a gradual shift to the mechanization of forest operations and related activities. In 1957, the Training Forest Establishment was transferred from the sector of the Ministry of Agriculture to the scope of the Ministry of Education. In 1967, the headquarters of the training facility were dislocated from the building of the Faculty of Forestry in Brno to Křtiny and the facility’s name was changed to Training Forest Enterprise Křtiny. TFE has been fulfilling its mission in practical education, science and research including the year of 1989 with its social changes. The long period of time could see many excellent teachers who contributed with their paedagogical and research activities to the professional life at the Faculty of Forestry. Names to be mentioned in this connection are those of professors Gustav Artner, Bohuslav Polansky, Miroslav Vyskot, Josef Kantor, Bohumil Doležal, Alois Zlatnik, Josef Pelíšek, Leo Skatula and Jiří Pospíšil.

After 1989, the Enterprise focused on due forest management, improvement of demonstration teaching objects for students of forestry disciplines and later also landscape engineering. Main attention is however given to building a material and technical base for the curriculum of wood technology, newly established at the VŠZ Faculty of Forestry – now Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology at Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno. An important change in property occurred in 2000. Pursuant to stipulations of the new Act on Universities no. 111/1998 Gaz. and based on the approval given by the Ministry of Agriculture and a decision of the Ministry of Education, the TFE land property was transferred to the possessions of Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry as to public university. All this provided basic prerequisites for the Training Forest Enterprise to open to the world and to offer the facility to forestry teachers, scientists, students, practical foresters and general public. Successful activities of TFE in this field can be documented by numerous cooperations with EU countries, Russia, China and Latin America.

Prof. Josef Opletal (1863–1953)

The hitherto long history and continuity of managing the university assets provided a foundation for the conceptual mission and plan of building TFE as a prominent entity of the government department. The objective is to serve as a demonstration facility of forest management based on near-natural forestry with a maximum of natural regeneration and at the same time as a demonstration object of timber production management based on the processing of own raw material with a maximum added value in the final product. All these objectives build on an extremely high diversity of biotic and abiotic conditions of forest management, a good production and technical base of timber engineering, and an available database.
Worth mentioning is also the efficient collective of TFE workers and a highly professional background consisting in the paedagogical and scientific board at the MZLU Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology. All this makes the Training Forest Enterprise of Masaryk Forest at MZLU Brno an immensely valuable facility that fulfils its mission on the basis of the University Law no. 111/1998 Gaz. (no. 552/2005 Gaz.) both with respect to the research in forestry, environmental science and wood technology, and with respect to paedagogical tasks in particular.