700,000 Volunteers to Plant Trees in Russia

MOSCOW, October 5 (RIA Novosti) – Hundreds of thousands of volunteers from all over Russia are expected to be involved in a countrywide environmental action to plant trees on Saturday, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz) said.

“Some 700,000 people have voiced their desire to come,” Rosleskhoz spokesman Vladimir Dmitriyev told RIA Novosti, adding that the Belgorod and Kemerovo regions usually accounted for the most active planting campaigns.

A similar event held in spring 2013 gathered about the same number of volunteers, who planted trees on an area of some 30,000 hectares.

The actions are held to make up for losses inflicted upon Russia’s woods by wildfires, illegal tree felling and other negative factors.