Century-old trees in residential areas of Kyiv as former pine woods traces

Abstract

Introduction

In present time, a problem of century-old pine forest remains preservation emerges for they belong to our natural heritage, the most valuable category of trees of the city green space. According to Ukrainian Law, natural heritage objects include ancient and century-old as well as especially valuable trees, which are natural botanical monuments. Green spaces are included in the integrated green belt of Kyiv and, according to the state building codes, are supposed to be kept as broad protective stripes where trees and shrubs can be planted, parks, squares, and other plantings can be created. Parks and squares along metro lines of Darnytsia – Chernihivska – Lisova stations as well as Brovarskyi highway on the left bank of Kyiv were created on the basis of the remains of pine forest in order to protect residential buildings from the noise and dust from the metro and the highway. Still modern construction and trade business tries to acquire parts of the green zones around metro stations by any means necessary, destroying all plantings even if those include century-old trees. There are many examples of that in Kyiv.

The aim of the research was to find century-old trees of Pinus sylvestris in Dniprovskyi District, Kyiv, in order to include them in Kyiv’s registry handbook of cultural heritage objects.

Materials and Methods

Full-scale examination of plantings has been conducted in the Sotsmisto residential district and surrounding residential areas such as Pivnichno-Brovarskyi and DVRZ in order to locate century-old pines and pines close to 100 years old. Tree parameters were measured with instruments such as a measuring tape and an altimeter. Condition of pines was identified; main defects, such as bark or trunk damage, cracks, and hollows, dried twigs and branches, pests, and diseases, were noted. Resulted data shows if those trees require their inclusion in additional registry handbooks as well as healing and protection by nature protection authorities.

Results

We have examined century-old pines that grow in green protective zones along Brovarskyi highway and metro lines of Darnytsia – Chernihivska – Lisova stations as well as on-street territories, on house yards, around pre-school, school, and higher education institutions, around cult buildings, hospitals and on other territories of Sotsmisto residential district in Dniprovskyi District, Kyiv. In a time of intensive city-building, pine forests sharply decline, only small separate isolated groups, bunches and small arrays of trees remain from them as parks and squares; pines also remain on limited usage territories. Sometimes only singular trees are left standing. Both organizations and regular citizens can report about finding century-old trees. Natural botanical monument status allows preserving century-old trees in areas where construction is planned and where they can suffer from fire or cutting. For that reason, employees of M. M. Grishko National Botanical Garden NАS of Ukraine also join this important mission. Beyond century-old tree detection in Sotsmisto residential district, we also initiated research in surrounding residential districts in Dniprovskyi District: Pivnichno-Brovarskyi and DVRZ districts.  

Conclusions

In the Sotsmisto residential district, 258 century- and near-century-old trees of Pinus sylvestris have survived, in particular, 45 pines are located in the yards along Pratsi Boulevard and Pozharskoho Street; 39 – in Popudrenko Park; their average height is 18–20 meters, they have good condition. We propose granting the special protective status to the century-old pines as objects of cultural heritage and including them in the registry handbooks of protected century-old trees-botanical monuments of nature of Ukraine. The paper involves a reasonable order of pine plantations renewal in the studied district in Kyiv as well as an appropriate order of Pinus sylvestris forest and forest-park zones development.