Fig. 1. This natural stone bridge on the slope of Kameniti Vrh is located
near the walking path that links the geological attractions of the Forest
Parks “Japlenški Vrh” and “Golubinjak”.

CELEBRATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST LEGAL PROTECTION OF CROATIA’S GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE AND THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF PLANET EARTH

The Public Institution Priroda, in collaboration with
the Tourist Board of the Town of Delnice and the Municipality of Lokve,
is planning a series of activities in 2008 – the International Year of
Planet Earth – and on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of protection
provided to the renowned geological and paleological site Hušnjakovo near
Krapina, which has achieved international fame from the research of the
remains of the Krapina prehistoric man by the geologist Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger.
It is a little known fact that in the month of November (22 November 2008)
it will be 60 years since Hušnjakovo, the Krapina Neanderthal site, was
proclaimed the first paleological natural monument in Croatia. This important
anniversary coincides with the celebration of the International Year of
Planet Earth. To celebrate this occasion, the Primorsko-Goranska County
intends to conduct the following activities linked to protecting, preserving
and interpreting our geological heritage:

• The Public Institution Priroda is involved in the GEO-Park project
  on the island of Rab that is headed by the geologists of HAZU (Croatian
  Academy of Sciences and Art). As part of the project, a geological garden
  is under construction on the Lopar peninsula: geological educational
  trails will be laid out, geo-lookouts put in place, and explanations
  provided at selected geological points in an effort to make events of
  the geological past clearer to visitors.
  Planned deadline: the project is in progress.
• Two information panels on the features of the Lopar peninsula will
  be erected on access roads to this protected landscape. This project
  is also linked to the GEO-Park project currently underway on the island
  of Rab.
  Planned deadline for the information panels is early June 2008.
• Educational trails will be laid out in the Forest Park “Japlenški
  Vrh” near Delnice and two instructive panels (out of a total of
  six), erected that will be about the geological heritage of Japlenški
  Vrh: the first panel is entitled “How did Japlenški Vrh come by
  its name?” and the second, “The geology of Japlenški Vrh”.
  Planned deadline: end June 2008.
• A walking path will be opened that will connect two protected karst
  areas: the Forest Park “Japlenški Vrh” and the Forest Park
  “Golubinjak”. This path has several interesting geological
  points, alongside which instructive panels will be placed:

  – Panel 1 – “Sobol’s Limekiln in Lučice” (in a recent drive
  organised by the Tourist Board of Delnice, the limekiln and its surroundings
  were cleared of brush and forest vegetation that had completely overgrown
  it). There are plans to reconstruct the limekiln.
  – Panel 2 – “Kamerkin Dol – a deep karst sinkhole – and a natural
  stone bridge (fig. 1) with a cave on the slopes of Kameniti Vrh near
  Lokve”
  – Panel 3 – Information panel at the entrance to the Lokvarka Cave –
  a protected geomorphological natural monument

  Plans for the future involve the further development of this project
  into a “Karst Park” which would link the valuable and interesting
  geological features of the Forest Park “Golubinjak” (the ice-pit
  cave, stone bridge, sinkholes, cliffs), the Hirčeva Cave, the Lokvarka
  Cave, the sinkhole “Kamerkin Dol”, the Medvjeđa Cave near
  Lokve, the natural stone bridge (fig. 1) and other karst features in
  the vicinity of Lokve and Delnice.
  Planned deadline for the walking path and instructive panels: Autumn
  2008. In part, the deadline will depend upon the results of the bidding
  for the project “Theme trails – Theme Highland Trail: the Delnice
  Round Trail/Hiking and Walking through the Protected Natural Heritage
  of Delnice and Lokve” for which the Delnice Tourist Board has submitted
  a proposal to the Ministry of Agriculture.

• Works will be undertaken to completely renovate the infrastructure
  of the Lokvarka Cave – a protected geomorphological natural monument
  and one of the first natural monuments to be granted protection in Croatia
  (since 1961!)
  Planned deadline: renovation should be completed by the end of 2008.
  However, because of the scope of work involved, it is not certain whether
  it will be possible to keep all the deadlines and have the cave open
  to visitors in 2008.