Kyiv’s longtime symbol and trademark, chestnut trees, are expected to be removed from the city’s main Khreshchatyk Street, according to Dmytro Zaruba, deputy general director of the Kyivzelenbud municipal association of enterprises responsible for greenery in Ukraine’s capital.
Zaruba announced that Zelenbud would recommend removing chestnuts during the interview to Vechirniy Kyiv online media.
The chestnuts will most likely be substituted by plane trees.
The Kyivzelenbud’s press service confirmed this information to the Kyiv Post.
Zaruba said that Khreshchatyk Street is planned to be reconstructed next year. The reconstruction was ordered by the municipal corporation Kyivavtodor, which maintains and repairs roads in Kyiv.
According to Zaruba, Kyivzelenbud will recommend to Kyivavtodor to remove chestnuts from Khreshchatyk. The decision about the plants’ change is to be made by the Kyiv City State Administration. The Kyivzelenbud’s press service said that it’s yet unknown when the decision will be made.
“Unfortunately, chestnuts planted along the roads of the metropolitan roads are no longer able to withstand the current conditions of the city – air pollution, warming of the climate, the proliferation of such pests as the moth, which is prohibited to fight with chemical means in Kyiv,” Zaruba’s interview reads.
Apart from that, the deputy director said that the regular salt used in winter as an anti-icing agent also destroys the root system of chestnut trees. He says that there were suggestions to use magnesium salt instead, which is less harmful to plants, however, it appeared to be too expensive for the local authorities.
Instead of chestnuts, Kyivzelenbud suggests planting plane trees. Zaruba says that Kyiv citizens have chosen this kind of tree for Khreshchatyk in the poll. The press service of Zelenbud said they couldn’t currently provide information on how the poll was conducted.
The deputy director says that plane trees are better at resisting to various diseases, pests, and such harmful urban conditions as gas pollution.
“The planes have wide leaves, a wide tree crown, which will create a shadow over the pedestrian zone and actively hold off the dust and carbon from the exhaust gases,” Zaruba said in the interview.
He also said that plane trees do not require regular irrigation and maintain low and high temperatures.
Nevertheless, Zaruba announced that chestnuts will not disappear from the city’s parks and squares, and Kyivzelenbud will continue to plant them.
“The history of Kyiv is connected to the chestnuts, therefore, it makes no sense to change and look for a new green symbol of the capital.”
The first chestnut trees have reportedly been massively planted in Kyiv in the 19th century. Since then, the trees have become an unofficial symbol of the city. During the times of the Soviet Union, Kyiv’s coat of arms depicted a flowering chestnut tree branch. The trees have been also featured on Kyiv’s subway tokens and the box of famous Kyiv cake.
The day of Kyiv is celebrated on the last Sunday of May when the chestnut trees usually bloom.
