Borkovická blata, Nature reserve in Borkovice, Czech Republic.
Borkovická blata is a nature reserve in the Borkovice cadastral area, in the Tábor district, three kilometres north of Mažice. It protects a fragment of a hand-cut transitional peat bog with peat layers up to 8 metres deep, open sedge-and-sphagnum mire, bog pools in old peat-cutting pits, and a bog pine stand in the north.
Peat extraction began here in the 1800s using hand labor in the early period. The operation shifted to industrial-scale mining between 1953 and 1980 before the area transitioned to its current protected status.
The peat was cut by hand into blocks called "borky", which were dried and used for heating and later as fertiliser; the flooded pits left by this digging now hold peat pools. The educational trail Blatská stezka crosses the reserve, and the name Blata refers to the surrounding Soběslavské Blaty.
The Blatská stezka educational trail runs through the reserve; the source does not give its length or walking time. The reserve lies in the Borkovice cadastral area, three kilometres north of Mažice in the Tábor district. The southern part was drained by peat extraction, so the intact bog surface is in the northern section.
The peat was once cut by hand into blocks called "borky", dried and burned for fuel, then used as fertiliser; the flooded pits left by this digging now hold small bog pools. The reserve is also one of the best-studied fungus sites in the Tábor region, with about 400 species recorded thanks to Dr. František Kotlaba.
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