Uhelná trasa
The Lítov Spoil Heap
The important brown coal deposits in the Sokolov Basin have been exploited since the 18th century. Their extraction went on for decades in underground mines and small quarries, and in large opencast mines since the middle of the 20th century. Up to this day, the mining operations in the region of Sokolov have affected an area of approximately 50 km2.
The site in 2003
In order to extract the coal seam in an opencast mine, it was necessary to remove considerable amounts of overburden. It was technically impossible to form spoil heaps in the interior of the Medard and Libík open pits, located between Svatava and Habartov. The overburden had to be piled on outer spoil heaps.
The Spoil Heap in winter
The Lítov Spoil Heap is situated on the cadastral areas of Habartov, Lítov and Horní Částkov in the most western part of the basin. The elevation of the terrain originally reached 450–540 m and increased to 570 m after the fill was completed. The spoil heap contains more than 200 million cubic meters of overburden material.
The reclaimed area of the Lítov Spoil Heap and the exhausted Boden Pit at Habartov occupy an overall area of 723 hectares. Most of this expanse is reclaimed by forest. The Black Alder, Grey Alder, Norway Spruce, several kinds of pine (mainly Scots Pine and Mountain Pine), the Northern Red Oak, and also the European Larch, Sessile Oak or European Ash were predominantly planted on the Lítov Spoil Heap. Partial losses of the planted tree species occurred because of the considerable phytotoxicity of the substrate, thereby creating bare areas.
Erosion
At a first glance, the devastated landscape has many objects of interest, which are pointed out by the educational trail in the western part of the spoil heap. The trail with 5 stops is accessible even from this place.
Sketch map with the trail
