standing on a reforested hill, flush with the first gossamer green buds of spring, Stanislav Stys, an expert on land reclamation, gazes out across the city of Most in northern Bohemia, the Czech Republic. European blackbirds rummage through the forest litter for tasty insects, while overhead in the leafy canopy, nightingales and chiffchaff warblers announce their territory and squabble for mates. The scene is almost bucolic as newly forested slopes sprout maple, oak and pine saplings, tended by a brigade of women sporting bikinis and shorts. Nearby, a vineyard, cultivated on reclaimed mining land, now exports wine to Israel. On the other side of the city, bulldozers are busy reshaping another derelict open pit mine into what will become a recreational lake and public park.

Most sits in the Bohemian basin of the Czech Republic