Abstract
Reclaimed forests have been established in post-mining landscapes for about 50 years. Despite the fact that reclaimed forest are located in vicinity of cities, they are rarely used for recreation.
In order to explain such a low attractiveness, we investigate how the visual differences that are given by the process of creation, subsequent care and rather young age of growth of reclaimed forests explain environmental preferences. Our study examines the preferences for reclaimed and spontaneously emerging forests typical for reclamation of Sokolov's post-mining landscape.
The data for the preference study were collected on-line and the preferences were evaluated by means of visual representations. Environmental preferences differ according to the type of the tree species and the age of the forest, however not systematically between re-planted and succession forests.
People living in the vicinity of reclaimed forest find them less attractive than people from the control population of Central Bohemia region. This difference cannot be explained by differences in socio-demographic structure of the affected population.