The citizens of Shipka suggest an old-growth forest to be declared protected area. The Forestry has it for cutting down in the time of the Forest week.

Right before the suggestion was presented, local volunteers went to the forest and established that the cutting down of trees had already begun in the heart of the suggested-for-protected area and the old-growth deciduous forest.

Representatives of the local initiative committee are of the opinion that after they informed Kazanlak State Forestry in the autumn of 2015 about the intention of declaring protected area, the Forestry is now in a hurry to cut the wood. An inquiry has been submitted to Kazanlak State Forestry as per the Public Information Act, in order to clarify the intensity of the cutting and the date of the license. The inspection on site indicates that there are a number of new tracks as well as not cleared branches and fallen trees.

Local citizens declare their readiness to defend the forest, and, if need be, through actions and protests on site and in front of responsible institutions.
Some of the major goals of the suggested-for-protected area “Grazhdanska mogila” are the protection of rare and protected plants species, peripheral habitats of bear, nestling habitats of rare and protected birds; protection of a complex of natural beech and sessile oak forests and silicate screes; protection and exhibiting of the oldest counter-erosion afforestations in our country; creating of conditions for informative tourism for the guests of the region and recreation of the local population.

From a conservation viewpoint, of special value in the region are the established nestling habitats with permanent nestling of black stork and northern goshawk, high probability of nestling of booted eagle, as well as the permanent habitats of the bear, white-backed woodpecker, black woodpecker and others.

In the suggested-for protected area fall a part of the first forest cultures, created in our country more than 100 years ago by the French forester Felix Luis-Mari Vogeli for reasons of fighting erosion and downpours on the south slopes of Stara planina, which are part of the history of the forestry in Bulgaria.

Parts of the suggested-protected-area are used by citizens and guests of Shipka for short-term rest. An educational route is in the process of preparation with the theme of fighting erosion and sustainable forest management. Tourist trails for the peaks Shipka and Buzludzha, Sokolski monastery, and others pass through the suggested for protected area. There are water abstraction facilities of local significance in the suggested-for-protected area, which are single source of drinking water for some of the local inhabitants.

In February 2015, the local initiative committee presented a subscription list to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food demanding an immediate suspension of the tree cuttings in the region of the town of Shipka along Selskata river and Dimovets, afforestation of cut tracks and clearings and the stopping of cutting through of primitive forest tracks as the single means for procuring timber. As a result of the subscription list and the subsequent talks between the local initiative committee and Kazanlak State Forestry, the cutting of a new track in the region of the town of Shipka was stopped.

Photos of the tree cutting: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1005506856153733.1073741837.103266246377803&type=3