Establishment of the oldest university of its kind in the Czech Republic.

A forestry department was established at Mendel University, for which the need to provide practical teaching in the field soon became apparent, which resulted in the establishment of a school farm. ŠLP is the oldest school estate in the department of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.

The enthusiasm that accompanied, for example, the adaptation of the castle in Křtiny or the successful integration of the estate into the educational process of the Forest Department, was manifested, among other things, in the request to rename the Adamov Forest Estate. T. G. Masaryk, the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic, expressed his approval, and the company was given a new name School forest estate Masarykův les (Masaryk’s forest) of the University of Agriculture in Brno.

During the occupation, the company was given the new name Directorate of School Forest Farm in Brno and the headquarters moved from Adamov to Brno. It came under commissary administration and was assigned to the direct and technical administration of the Directorate of State Forests and Estates in Hodonín. Subsequently, efforts were made to abolish it, but without success. After the liberation in 1945, the operation of the farm was resumed according to the intentions of the pre-war state.

Regardless of the political events of 1948, the defining milestone was the adoption of the Higher Education Act, on the basis of which organizational changes took place. School forest farm is renamed to School forest plant. Its direct management by the Administrative Committee ceases and the director of the forestry plant, reporting directly to the school rector, becomes responsible for management. The Administrative Committee is being transformed into an Advisory Board, chaired by the Vice-Dean for School Forestry. The main task of the Advisory Board is to discuss and approve the concept of the development of the school plant and the methodical management of targeted activities. The arrival of the young generation at the beginning of the 1950s primarily meant a gradual transition to the mechanization of work in the forest and in related activities. Subsequently, in 1957, the School Forest Competition was transferred from the department of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic to the department of the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic.

In 1967, the headquarters of the school plant was moved from the building of the Faculty of Forestry in Brno to Křtiny, and then in 1970 the name was changed to Školní lesní podnik Křtiny. However, it still fulfills its mission in practical educational activities, science and research, including 1989, with its social changes. Even during this long period, a number of excellent pedagogues work at the Faculty of Forestry of the Academy of Sciences in Brno, who, in cooperation with the staff of the Forestry Institute, directed professional matters through their pedagogical and research work. Professors Gustav Artner, Bohuslav Polanský, Miroslav Vyskot, Josef Kantor, Bohumil Doležal, Alois Zlatník, Josef Pelíšek, Leo Skatula, Jiří Pospíšil etc. should be mentioned in this context.

After 1989, the management of ŠLP concentrated on proper forest management, improvement of demonstration teaching objects for students of forestry and later on landscape design. Above all, however, the material and technical base is being built for the woodworking study program, newly established at the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Applied Sciences, now the Faculty of Forestry and Woodworking of the Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno.

An important property change took place in 2000. All the lands of ŠLP were transferred to the Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno in accordance with the provisions of the new Higher Education Act No. 111/1998 Coll., with the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic dated 7 November 2000, ref. 324/99-5140/N-112; 2272/99-5140; 2067/99-5140; 1126/00-5050 and based on the decision of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, no. 14 518/99-14 of 27 December 2000, transferred to ownership as a public university. All of this provides the basic prerequisites for opening up to the world, offering the use of SLP by forestry pedagogues and scientists, students, practical foresters and the lay public. Evidence of successful activity in this direction is numerous cooperation with the countries of the European Union, Russia and Latin America.

The existing rich history and long-term continuity in the management of university property provided the basis for the current conceptual mission and intention to build ŠLP as a leading entity of the department. The aim is to act as a demonstration object of forestry management, which is based on close to nature management of forest stands with maximum use of natural regeneration, and at the same time as a demonstration object of timber management, based on the principle of processing one’s own raw material with adding added value to the product. The exceptionally high diversity of abiotic and biotic conditions of forest management, the production and technical base of the wood industry and the available database together provide the prerequisites for this. We cannot forget the hard-working collective of ŠLP workers and the background consisting of the pedagogical and scientific corps of LDF MENDELU in Brno. All of this currently makes the ML Křtiny MENDELU High School in Brno an extremely valuable object that fulfills its mission on the basis of the valid Act on Universities No. 111/1998 Coll. both from the point of view of forestry, environmental and timber research, and above all from the point of view of pedagogy.