Strong bura wind doesn’t stop final reforestation drive in Dalmatia for 2020

The final reforestation drive of the year took place this weekend

ŽRNOVNICA, 21 November 2020 – The sixth and last reforestation drive of the year took place at Žrnovnica near Split on Saturday.

The reforestation drive is part of the Boranka campaign – the largest volunteer reforestation action on the fire-damaged areas in Dalmatia, organised by the Croatian Scout Association in cooperation with HGSS and Croatian Forests. 

Today’s drive was the 23rd in total since Boranka was launched in 2018, and so far more than 7,000 volunteers have participated in the actions, planting more than 80,000 new trees in seedlings, seeds, and acorns. With this, Boranka became the largest reforestation volunteer action in Europe.

On Saturday, around one hundred volunteers took part in the drive. In addition to scouts from Split, volunteers from the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service, members of the Association of Homeland War Veterans “Brodosplit”, students and professors of the Faculty of Kinesiology in Split, mountaineers from HPD Kozjak and PD Gojzerica, members of the students Association Oceanus, members of Rotaract club Split Novi and other citizens took part in the drive. 

Strong winds on the coast today didn’t stop the Boranka drive

A mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees was planted, namely holm oak, pine, and coastal pine in seedlings and black pine in seeds.

Not even the strong bura wind, which marked Saturday’s action, could hinder the volunteers in planting new trees. One of the volunteers even came from Zagreb to help with planting.

Boranka

“I participated in Boranka for the last two years and met a lot of new friends from Split. This action is great for me and there is a lot of positive energy and wonderful people. I decided to return to Split this year as well and help restore the burned forests. A really strong bura was blowing today, so we joked that today’s Boranka became Buranka,” said Sara Medved, a young doctor from Zagreb.

Boranka

Although this is the last reforestation drive this year, the Boranka campaign continues through an educational campaign. At the beginning of December, 10,000 sets of educational brochures and packets of boralicas – special pastel crayons made from pine ashes burned in fires – will be distributed free of charge to primary schools throughout Croatia.

The entire Boranka campaign is funded by donations and sponsorships from citizens and companies, and the main sponsors of the Boranka campaign are Raiffeisen Bank, Radenska and Karbon.

All volunteers at the drives were provided with water, sandwiches, fruit, protective masks, work gloves, and planting tools. Croatian Forests provides seedlings and other planting material for planting, and their experts provide volunteers with a brief education on planting.

The City of Split, as a partner of the Boranka campaign, has provided free city buses to transport volunteers from Split to afforestation sites and back. Volunteers of the City Society of the Red Cross Split take care of the safety of volunteers.

The Directorate of Civil Protection provides logistics and other equipment for holding drives and provides protective masks for all volunteers.