Tracing the fate of hay meadows with haylofts in Slovakia: A geographical perspective

Abstract The paper focuses on the historical distribution of haylofts in Slovakia, geographical conditions related to hay meadows with haylofts, and land cover changes of former hayloft localities. Moreover, the current state of preserved haylofts and the land use of their surrounding area were documented at a regional scale, during the field research. A map of the historical occurrence of haylofts was digitised based on the Czechoslovakian military topographic maps from 1952–1957 (1:25,000). Altogether, 9,742 haylofts were recorded. The haylofts were usually built in mountain and sub-mountain areas on places with low soil quality, mostly at higher elevations, on moderate or moderately steep slopes and in more distant and isolated areas. About half of former hayloft meadows now exist as meadows or pastures with different intensity of grassland management. Forest or shrubs already cover the other 38% of the sites. To a lesser extent, the areas have been converted into arable land or recreational areas. Only a few haylofts have survived to this day; for example, in Upper Liptov Region, it is only 1% of their former abundance in this area (48 haylofts). Apart from a few positive cases where they have been restored or preserved, those that have survived continue to decay.