Eva Zidek was born in Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia. She studied forestry, a five-year program at the University of Prague. After her schooling, she worked in the field for the Czech Forest Service, as a forest technician and district manager, and later as an independent forester for the National Forest Management Institute. She moved several times, married, and had two children. The last place the family lived in Czechoslovakia was Jeseniky, located in the North Eastern mountains of Czechoslovakia, where Eva worked for a Land-Protected area (similar to a provincial park) as a forester...