Tree planting to regenerate Slovenian forests
Ljubljana, 13 October - Almost 10,000 trees will be planted at several locations in Slovenia today as part of an initiative organised by the state-owned SiDG forestry company in the wake of the December 2017 windthrow that damaged around 3 million cubic metres of forest in the country.
The Regenerate the Forests initiative is part of a plan that includes the planting of around 450,000 tress on around 160 hectares this year alone.
A shovel is enough to participates in the reforestation and awareness raising operation, which the organisers hope will attract at least 400 volunteers.
Slovenian scouts will also participate in the planting, which will supervised by foresters from SiDG and the national Forest Service.
Slovenian forests suffered substantially on three occasions in the past three years. In February 2014 they were hit by an ice storm, which then led to a bark beetle epidemic, while windthrow struck at the end of last year.
The ice storm caused EUR 216m in damage, the windthrow EUR 48m, while the preliminary estimate for the bark beetle-caused damage is EUR 150m.
According to Damjan Oražem of the national Forest Service, much work has already been done as regards the clean-up, but restoration is necessary now.
Nature will take care of the most, manual planting will be needed for around 1,700 of a total of 32,000 hectares. This entails planting around four million trees, which he expects will take several years.