 TIS - Independent Association of Friends of Nature -
is the parent organisation of Hucul Club. As related on the page about the saving of the hucul breed, members of TIS played a pivotal role immediately before and during the time when Hucul Club was founded. Their work, begun more than 35 years ago, survived even the 10-year interruption of TIS's operations during the "normalisation" period of the communist era, and continues to this day. The word "tis" means the yew tree, seen in the organization's logo. The name was chosen because the yew is a threatened and protected species in the Czech republic and an interesting conifer in its own right. Capitalised, as an acronym, in Czech it also stands for three characteristics that members ought to posses, namely patient endurance, intelligence, and fortitude.
TIS is the oldest nongovernmental organisation in the Czech Republic. Initiated by O. Leisky, it was founded in 1958, first as a branch of the National Museum Society (a cultural organisation with a long tradition in the country). TIS adopts the ideals propounded by A. Schweizer, E.T.Seton, M.Tyrs, T.G.Masaryk and A.B.Svojsik, with the aim to develop a modern approach to life, a harmonious, knowledgeable relationship with nature and the environment--biosophy. The guiding ideas of this approach are summarised in The Great Law poem, originally created mainly for the youngest members of the organisation.
TIS's accomplishments include:
Successful completion of more than 30 country-wide ecological field research projects
Professional documentation of natural features leading to the creation of several protected areas, within the country an abroad; for examle, the Sumava Protected Landscape Area in the CR, the Tassili National Park in central Sahara, and others
Surveys and documentation of Czech and Slovak caves and chasms, carried out by the Karst Section
Organisation of country-wide campaigns such as the Day for the Birds, the Trees for the Republic, and Conservation Days (now morphed into the Earth Day)
Three Festivals of Natural History Films and three grand exhibitions-- Bird Protection, Our Nature in Photography, and Environmental Conservation, which gave rise to the current Ecofilm festival
A two-year "Nature Guard" training program for volunteer wardens, and more than 100 ecology summer camps
Sixteen scientific research expeditions to several continents, more than 200 bus tours/field trips to nature reserves and various interesting natural areas at home and abroad, and many other ecological field trips
Hundreds of professional and popular lectures,currently in the New Millennium cycle which started in 1989
During 1979-1989 TIS went underground, following its official dissolution by the communist regime
TIS also
- was the first organisation in the country to publicly warn about the dangers of pesticides (Silent Spring 1966)
- saved from demolition a small run-of-the-stream hydroelectic plant in the Jeseniky Mtns, today a technology heritage item, and successfully operated the plant for many years
- organised four state-wide and one international conference, two concerning health issues, co-ordinated by the Health Section {now called Collegium on Ecology and Health)
In 2009, TIS remembers several anniversaries:
 50 years of the country-wide bird protection efforts, started by the Apri 1, for the Bird's Day event (1959)
45 years since the first post-WW2 nature photography exposition at the National Museum in Prague (1964)
35 years since the completion of a thorough conservation survey of uranium deposit areas near Hamr by Ceska Lipa (1974)
30 years of the official dissolution of TIS by communist authorities (1979)
25 years since Hucul Club distance ride to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1944 Slovak National Uprising (Banska Bystrica to Prague, under the auspices of TJ Aster) (1984)
20th anniversary of the victory for freedom and democracy in the Czech Republic, and official reinstatement of TIS (1989)
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