Residents on plans to restore greenery after dust storms

Measures are being developed in Rostov Oblast to improve greenery. Plans include restoring three state forest belts that have long been neglected. Additionally, the Botanical Garden of Southern Federal University (SFU) will create a nursery to grow plants adapted to the local climate for greening Rostov-on-Don.

Residents of the region support these initiatives but are skeptical about their implementation. The situation with green spaces remains tense. Here are some statements from local residents:

• «There used to be a nursery between the old airport and Aleksandrovka. Everything worked, now it»s all built up.«
• »If a plot is slated for development and has trees growing on it, at the slightest opportunity, don«t cut them down, preserve them, dig them up and transplant them. At least for forming forest belts.»
• «We should plant poplars. The best tree. For cleaning the city air.»
• «We can»t restore the forest belt near the stadium no matter what.«
• »Forestry enterprises always handled growing and planting trees. They had a plan for the number of plantings. They monitored the forest belts. The Botanical Garden alone won«t do anything. Besides planting, we need to constantly oversee all this. We need to control so that farmers don»t cut down forest belts for their plowed fields. Bring back the forestry enterprises, and you«ll have happiness.»
• «They»ve woken up. After annual dust storms. But this needs to be done not at the oblast level, but at the federal level. The wind knows nothing about administrative boundaries.«
• »They«ve woken up, thank God. In the »90s, lands were sold off to private hands, and they cut down all the forest belts to have more land. I very much doubt that there were agronomists and technologists among them. And here«s the result. These »new owners« didn»t even know what forest belts are for. Maybe now they«ve realized.»

Greening problems in the oblast are protracted. For example, the administration of Rostov-on-Don is preparing for a court case due to the death of 16,000 saplings planted two years ago in place of trees felled for the construction of the Western Chord. In autumn 2025, a scandal erupted in Novocherkassk over the felling of thirty healthy pine trees on the central avenue.