Some time ago we told about the second working meeting on oak conservancy and regeneration, which took place in Pereslavl Zalesski in August 2006. The participants agreed that protection of transplants, giving them a legal status and including them into the regional programs and territory infrastructure should become one of the priorities of the project in question. “Thousand Oaks for the Thousand- Year Anniversary” is one of regional initiatives launched by the “Zelenaya Vetv” District Ecology Club.
It was difficult to find a plot for plantation of the thousand oaks since the land under the oaks will not be in economic use for hundreds years. The municipal administration found 2, 5 hectares of the land. Yan Andreev, the head of the Tutaev municipal administration in his interview to the Yaroslavl TV Company noted, “The thousand- year anniversary of Yaroslavl is an important event not only for Yaroslavl but also for the whole province, therefore every municipal administration should make its own contribution. In the framework of this program we plan to carry out landscape architecture project by planting coniferous trees along the high- way Tutaev- Yaroslavl.”
Planting distance between oaks is 15 meters with wild ashes and maples in-between. This helps to easier preserve the oak forest. According to ecologists, in 40- 50 years the wild ashes and maples will disappear letting the oaks mature and last for up to 800 years.
Lidia Baikova, the chief of the “Zelenaya Vetv” Ecology Club said, “Yaroslavl district does not have many oak forests. Our district is a northern frontier of large-leaf forests. The majority of existing oak forests are on publicly held land which previously belonged to the large private estates. Few of the existing oak forests are natural and most of them spread along the Volga bank.”
A part of the project is to grow an oak park in the private housing area of low- rising development. There will be another oak forest in the Tutaev region this year and the next year the planting operations will continue in Yaroslavl region. Lidia Baikova adds, “We do not find it difficult to find the seedlings and involve volunteers to do planting. The most challenging task is to protect the young growth against fires and damaging, therefore the support of municipal authorities is of such importance in this issue.”