Into the Brda forests with a virtual forester

On 16 November, the Military Forests launched a new geolocation game in the youngest protected landscape area.

The new circular nature trail leads in the Brdy Protected Landscape Area from Orlov to Třemošná. However, visitors will not find any information boards or signs and other traditional tourist furniture on it. Above all, children will be guided through the forest by the virtual forester Jirka, who will show them tree species, natural features and specific examples of forestry management along the trail in a fun and playful way. All this thanks to a special location app that visitors can download for free on their mobile phones.

The trail, which was created in cooperation with the Brda Protected Landscape Area Administration of the Agency for Nature and Landscape Conservation of the Czech Republic, is actually similar to the so-called forest pedagogy, specialised programmes about nature, forests and forestry, which are organised not only by VLS for school groups, but also for interest groups or children's camps. A trained forester guides visitors through nature and teaches them how the forest works in a playful and entertaining way. But also how visitors should behave in the forest and why. In the case of the new trail to the 779-metre-high Třemošná nad Příbramí mountain, however, the forest educator Jirka is a virtual character that visitors to Brda can download in a mobile phone app.

"The game is called In the forest with a forester about the forest and it very faithfully simulates the programmes we organise here in Brdy for groups of children, but also for the elderly. In the game, visitors will identify tree species directly in the field, get to know natural attractions, see the top breaks in the trees along the route, but they will also gain knowledge about what fences are in forests, what they are for and how they work. It's actually a kind of a walk with a forester through his forest, where he describes nature, the forest and the work of foresters, and he has invented a number of fun tasks for this," described David Novotný, director of the Brda forestry division of VLS.

VLS created the app in cooperation with GeoFun, a company that specialises in virtual geolocation games in which classic "caches" are replaced by mobile phone apps.

"To install the game, all you need to do is open qr.geofun.cz/607 in your smartphone browser. The phone itself will offer to install the free GEOFUN application and then download the game "In the forest with a forester about the forest". Then all you have to do is walk to the parking lot at the forest in Orlov and the app itself will offer to start the game," says Vit Pechanec from GeoFun.

The first Brda nature trail with a virtual guide is about 5 kilometres long and its route circles back to Orlov. Visitors can take it at any time and it will take them on average 2 and a half hours.

"The educational programmes for the public in the forest are fully devoted to six forest educators at the Military Forests and Estates. Every year they bring 30,000 children and other visitors to the forests. Our programmes are becoming increasingly popular among educational institutions, so most of the time we are busy organising walks for school groups. The new nature trail to Třemošná actually extends our offer. Thanks to it, the forest pedagogy programme can be followed by anyone at any time, without making an appointment, because forest educator Jirka is always available. All you have to do is arrive with your children at the Orlová car park and start the app," explained Jan Kobr, head of forest educators at VLS.

Source.