Karaganda region to plant 7 mln trees by 2027

Extensive areas are being planted with elm and maple, species best adapted to the local climate. This year’s ambitious plan calls for planting about 840,000 seedlings across nearly 300 ha. Some of the work was completed in spring and is now being continued.

The largest effort is taking place near Shakhtinsk town, where about 400,000 two-year-old seedlings from the Novodolinsky nursery are being planted across 161 ha.

“We are planting new forests in places where trees never existed or were lost, relying on species that are most resilient to the local climate and soil,” noted Eduard Kryukov, afforestation and forest reproduction engineer at the Karaganda Department for the Protection of Forests and Wildlife.

A modern forest seed station is planned to be built in the region to raise survival rates to 80–90%, making seedlings ready for planting in as little as six months.

The Novodolinsky nursery ranks among the region’s largest, cultivating up to 1.3 million trees a year. While elm, maple, and pine remain its staples, this year it added birch and hawthorn for the first time.

The quality of the planting material is evident in the pines planted two years ago on the site of a burned forest in the Kirzavod area, where nearly all have taken root with a 90% survival rate.

Forestry enterprises in the region currently maintain over 2.4 million maple, elm, and pine seedlings, while seed collection efforts continue.

The Karaganda region aims to plant nearly 7 million young trees on over 2,000 hectares by 2027.

As reported earlier, Almaty is set to plant a total of 2.5 million trees and other greenery by 2030.