Milá

Milá is a hill in the Bohemian Central Highlands. It is located in the Ústí nad Labem region in the Most district in the cadastral area Milá southeast of Bečov. The hill is protected as a nature reserve, which is part of the first zone of the protected landscape area of the Bohemian Central Highlands. The area is about 12.5 km southeast as the crow flies from the centre of Most. A blue marked hiking trail from Most to Louny with a branch to the top leads through the reserve.

Milá was declared a nature reserve on 25 February 1958. The reason for the protection is the occurrence of thermophilic plant communities, which grow mainly on the southwestern exposed slopes of the hill and are characterized by a number of protected plant species. Among the important and specially protected plant species are the Adonis vernalis, the Verbascum phoeniceum, the Anthericum liliago, the Pulsatilla pratensis subsp. bohemica and the Stipa joannis. Species such as Viola ambigua and Allium strictum have the most westerly habitats in Europe.

The climax stage of the forest, which covers mainly the north exposed slopes, is also subject to protection. The climax forest is the final natural plant community that can be established in the current climate. The uniqueness of the Milá forest lies primarily in the fact that it has survived in the middle of an agrarian landscape, as other forests in this part of the Central Highlands have had to give way to intensive grazing. The area has been used by man since the Neolithic period. The species richness of plants and animals on Milá is mainly due to the diverse sequence of biotopes - from crevice vegetation of rocks, through grass and shrub formations of steppe and forest-steppe character, to deciduous forest. Among the animal kingdom, the most important class of insects is found here. The locust Stenobothrus eurasius bohemicus is an endemic of the Bohemian Central Highlands and its occurrence was the reason for the inclusion of Milá in the list of Natura 2000 sites of European importance.