Eco-solutions: Dnipropetrovsk region plants 4,000 evacuated maple saplings

The maple samples were saved from the constantly bombarded regions of Zaporizhzhia.

Rubryka reports this.

What is the problem?

Russian forces continue to shell Zaporizhzhia, with 442 attacks being reported in nine towns and villages of the region on March 31 alone. The constant bombardment not only harms the people and infrastructure but also causes damage to the natural environment. The Huliaipole Forestry, located just 10 km from the front line, has also been affected. The foresters' access to a large part of the area has been restricted due to the danger of conducting forestry activities in a war zone.

What is the solution?

4,000 maple trees, carefully cultivated by experts from the Huliaipole Forestry, were moved out of the danger zone to the Dnipropetrovsk region. Forestry staff from both regions collaborated to transfer the saplings and give them a better chance at survival in secure locations.

How does it work?

As part of the Ukrainian President's Green Country program and as a part of the State Forestry Agency's public initiative "Let's Create Forests Together," the foresters in the Dnipropetrovsk region intend to establish over 1,000 hectares of fresh forest plantations, amounting to a total of 8 million trees.

The employees of the Eastern Forest Office planted a group of 20,000 pine, maple, and oak saplings in preparation for International Forest Day. The pine seedlings were grown by the forest masters, while the maple trees were saved from the Zaporizhzhia region. This effort to rescue the maple saplings was a joint operation between experts from the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro branches of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine."

Yuliia Plieshakova, a top engineer in forest management for the Eastern Forestry Office, informed Rubryka about the relocation of saplings.

She believes that the top concern for the Zaporizhzhia branch is its proximity to the front. The safety of forestry workers is always their top priority. However, the employees at the Huliaipole Forestry can still carry out their duties in areas where it is safe to do so.

"This planting material has already been grown. It must be of a certain size to plant it in the forest, so it must be done right now. Working in the expansive Huliaipole forestry is hazardous, so the plants are being transported to areas where silviculture is already taking place. Both physical and financial resources were invested in growing these maples. To preserve the seedlings, it was decided to transport them to the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region," Yuliia Plieshakova says.

^{This photo features Yuliia Dovzhenko, a forestry engineer from the Dnipro Forestry branch. She was directly involved in evacuating maple seedlings from the destroyed town of Huliaipole. Last Saturday, she also participated in planting these maple trees in the Obukhiv Forestry—photo: Eastern Forestry Office.}

The maples saved from the shelling were planted on the territory of the Obukhiv Forestry of the Dnipro Forestry. Employees of the forest farm prepared the site, and eco-activists and volunteers joined the planting of seedlings.

The young forest will now be tended to and nurtured, and by autumn, it will be possible to determine if the maples have successfully established themselves in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

^{Eco-activists and volunteers helped foresters to plant maples. Photo: Eastern Forestry Office}

This is not the final evacuation of forestry crops; several more departures are planned in the future. The Zaporizhzhia region is scheduled to export 12,000 dogwood samples in the coming months, which will be grown in the Dnipro and Petrykiv branches of the Eastern Forestry Office.

Forestry workers of branches of the Eastern Forest Office note that in this way, they save the forests and the painstaking work of people invested in each sapling.