(opinion article)

To my surprise, while walking through the wonderful woodland between Novobelichi and Kotsiubynske, I found out the cracking forest cutting along Pidlisna Street near the Grunwald House Complex. I had not been there for more than 1 year, maybe because of the Russian-Ukrainian war problems forcing almost every Ukrainian family to change their usual style of living. It looked like a real shock for me because this forest width belonged to the favorite places of rest for almost all Novobelichi inhabitants.

Several occasional passerby people affirmed that they saw holes in the trunks of tall pine trees which were possibly filled with some anti-grass Roundup liquid. Surely, they said it off-the record. On the other hand, official guards said that everything went on legally and the trees were logged as a result of the fight with shashile beetle, a voracious pest, killing dozens of trees in a season. It was done under complete control and according to the order of the Sviatoshyn forest park management.

Surely, it sounds good, but I have one more question. Shashile beetles don`t eat steel constructions, so why did the “foresters” destroy the fairy-tale forest children’s playground and the work-out platform for young people? They were mostly made of metallic tubes and plates by local volunteers.

In my opinion, the forest opening with numerous tree stumps looks like a half-clean area for an ambitious construction site, but not as a pleasant place for a future forest park, which passes through safe and sound sanitization.

So, the eco-activists from Novobelichi are looking forward to the official explanations of the Sviatoshyn forest park management.