In the Poltava region Mirgorod forestry foresters managed to grow a pine forest on 3100 hectares of free-flowing sands.
For decades, the wind has blown sand and created dust storms that have covered fields and surrounding settlements, the Forests of Ukraine state enterprise reports on Facebook.
It is noted that the height of the hills in the area reaches 10-15 m, and the depth of the sand is 30-40 m. Since 1952, foresters began to plant trees to keep the sand. However, the first attempts failed, because the temperature of the sand could reach 60 ° C, and sometimes annual seedlings fell asleep during dust storms.
The report said that the creation of the forest was resumed in the 70s, but in 2005 a fire destroyed 500 hectares of forest. Since 2007, foresters have begun to restore the forest on the ashes. They changed the planting pattern, making the distance between the trees more – 2.5 by 0.7 meters in rows, which gives better access to nutrients to the seedlings.
“In order to protect the forest in the event of a fire, wide sandy strips were created here – fire breaks and deciduous plantings were planted along. Now the height of pine plantations in the arena of loose sands is from 4 to 10 meters,” the press service emphasized.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, reduce the negative impact of rainstorms, dust storms, which will simultaneously help combat soil erosion and climate change.
