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A few years ago, we wouldn’t have thought that we would be able to plant trees near the middle of December – normally in Romania it is too cold at this time, and the frozen ground would not have allowed the seedlings to take root.
But the effects of climate change are felt more and more strongly each year.
Tiny urban forests – like the one we planted on December 9th in Bucharest, Sector 5 – can play a very important role in supporting communities that have to withstand heat waves, drought or heavy rainfall, extreme winds or what phenomena still awaits us in our climate future.
As usual, hope lies in future generations.
This tiny forest is the dream of the hearty children from Secondary School no. 280 in Bucharest. During their civic education classes, they wrote letters asking the City Hall to increase the green areas in the sector. And their letters were answered – so they came, cheerful and full of energy, to plant with their own little hands!
“We are 4th grade A from Secondary School number 280. We are the Scouts Class, we love nature, we love everything that surrounds us,” explains Prof. Mihaela Feiffer, “we keep it clean and try to benefit nature as best we can at our age. In the civic education class, the children wrote letters to the Mayor. They were very excited, I admit that even I did not expect the Mayor to take his time and read the children’s letters. They were very impressed when they received the visit and saw that their letters were indeed heeded, and that some of their requests were fulfilled. We thank you for inviting us today to this beautiful action, we hope that the seedlings will grow as big as the children quickly, and we hope that in the future I will also come with my great-grandchildren to see the urban forest.”
In record time, we planted seedlings of maple, plane, linden, red and sessile oak, elm, and hornbeam – a mix of native forest species, resistant to climate change and urban pollution, which will oxygenate the area a little.
It is the first planting with our new partners, and we hope we’ll continue on a larger scale in 2023!
“It’s the first urban forest we have in Sector 5,” explains Alexandru Lazarov, director of the “Ștefan Iordache” Culture and Youth Center. “It’s a very nice initiative that the Mayor of Sector 5 and the City Manager embraced from the start. We have with us 30 children happy to do something for the environment, we are happy to do something like this for the residents of Sector 5, and we are proud to be involved in such projects. Our City Hall pays particular attention to ecology and the environment.”
Thanks again Prof. Mihaela Feiffer from School 280, City Manager Rareș Hopincă, Mayor Constantin Melnic, and Alexandru Lazarov, for this partnership which will contribute to the quality of life in Bucharest.
Do you want to help us plant more urban forests in Romania? Make a small donation to the Tomorrow’s Forest Foundation!
