The first landings as part of the “Garden of Memory” campaign took place in Melitopolk on the International Day of the Forest, in memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War and the Northern Military District.
100 trees were planted in the Melitopol Victory Park. It was decided to green the city’s public space with five types of saplings at once: volunteers and locals planted oak, ash, linden, catalpa and sycamore trees. The action was attended by the mayor of Melitopol Galina Danilchenko, as well as the head of the administration of the Zaporozhye region, Evgeny Balitsky.
“With joy in our hearts, today we inherit the scepter of our great Fatherland, the scepter of the Garden of Remembrance. I am proud to be involved in such a large-scale project and plant trees for our history and ecology. Today we have the opportunity to remember once again what a great and common cause we are pursuing in Melitopol. It is pleasing to see that people of all ages, from young to old, come to the descents to contribute to the survival of the “Garden of Memory”. And so we understand how important this initiative is for us residents of Zaporozhye. We will take this stick and proudly carry it forward so that our forests and memory gardens can live and bloom more.”
The afforestation program of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Zaporozhye region in the field of ecology and environmental protection is under special control. All plans are coordinated with the Federal Forestry Agency in order to maintain statistics and monitor the implementation of declared indicators in order to achieve obvious results in increasing forest areas.
“For two consecutive years in the country, the afforestation area exceeds the dead and cut forest area. Thus, more than 1.3 million hectares of forest were restored last year. In 2023, we plan to carry out afforestation activities on an area of over 1.4 million hectares. Everyone can contribute to the preservation and improvement of our country’s forest heritage by participating in environmental planting campaigns such as the “Garden of Memory” campaign, said Ivan Sovetnikov, president of Rosleskhoz.
Over 950 thousand trees will be planted in Zaporozhye this year, of which about 325,000 will be planted as part of the Garden of Memory. To implement this plan, the “Volunteers of Victory” and future ecologists – participants of the all-Russian movement “Volunteers of the Forest” will participate in the events.
Along with Zaporozhye, on International Forest Day, tree planting is carried out in the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, Adygea, Crimea, Dagestan, Chechnya, as well as in the Rostov Region.