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Ancient Trees of Rzeszów

Project Promoter: Fundacja Będzie Dziko
Proposal: 1st thematic call
Co-financed from the program: 28 000,00 EUR
Partners: None
Duration time: 01.12.2021 - 30.11.2022

Elimination of greenery, both single trees and avenues or parks, is becoming a serious and noticeable problem, which significantly lowers the quality of people’s lives. As a group of community activists protecting trees in Rzeszow, we observe a growing dissatisfaction with the removal of high greenery in our city and the lack of an adequate response to this problem. More than 6,000 trees have been cut down in Rzeszow in 2021, and about 43,000 trees in 2011-2014. With such a scale of the problem, making residents aware of the role of trees in our environment, as well as providing knowledge and necessary skills will not only integrate the ‘friends of trees’, but will make them more effective in action. As part of the project we convince the residents and local authorities that old trees and their complexes are as much a tourist attraction as the Old Town Square or the Castle in Rzeszów. We create a Virtual Monumental Tree Trail – a modern, attractive website showing that old trees are an important element of a modern city, providing shelter from the turmoil of urban life. Trees can be the subject of an outdoor lesson, as well as create an important, ‘emotional’ part of the urban landscape for people who have spent their lives in their shade. They were also witnesses of important events in the city’s history, e.g. the pedunculate oak at 7 Witkacy Street in Rzeszów is located at the site of a historical action of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), in which about 40 people were killed. Such “micro-histories” we collect and present on the website.