Autumn Afforestation in New Forest Sofia Begins

Jerusalem, 23 October, 2022 (TPS) -- SOFIA, 23.10.2022 (BTA)
Autumn afforestation begins in the New Forest Sofia near Negovan, Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova said in her social network profile. Over 200 volunteers and municipal employees planted 4,500 saplings on Sunday. Plans are to plant 15,000 oak saplings this autumn. Fandakova recalled that in the spring of 2022, together with volunteers, 24 acres of the 137 that will be the new forest were reforested. Those wishing to take part in the initiative can join any day until November 20.

The New Forest Sofia project aims to plant trees around the city to create green rings. The first new forest is already a young forest in the land of Suhodol, Fandakova added.

The initiative began in 2013, when a decision of the Sofia Municipal Council on June 13 designated the place for planting the New Forest Sofia – the land of the Sofia neighborhood Suhodol, Ovcha Kupel district. In the period from 2017 to 2020, 103,350 saplings of the species White Acacia and Oak were planted on an area of over 206 acres with the full participation of volunteers – schoolchildren, students, business companies, individual citizens and entire families with children, the Mayor of Sofia, municipal councilors, district mayors and employees of the Sofia Municipality. Today, the first trees planted are already over human height and fulfill the main goals of the creation of the new forest – increasing the capital’s forests and improving the quality of the air citizens breathe.