PATROLLERS CREATE CRAFT FOR “CHILDREN OF AFRICA”.

Eco patrol met a little better with their island, went into nature and collected a large number of pine cones on the way from the bay to the bay Brine Čigrađa that we used for making Christmas decorations. Ornaments will be sold for charity at the Christmas Fair in Murter 18.12.16, and the funds raised will be donated to “Children of Africa”.

Murterska eco patrol noted that on this route has plenty of Aleppo pine, and that besides him, there aren’t lots of different species, just oak or cypress trees occasionally.

Aleppo pine is well known and managed in the coastal regions of Croatia. In the past the island of Murter it exists the “Association for afforestation” whose main task was the reforestation of bare hills of the island. If we compare the old photos with the actual ones, we can see that some hills which are now fully covered pines, were totally bare some time ago. Pine has a lot of resin and essential oils and is therefore highly flammable, near it difficult to grow other crops, in its canopy, due to large amounts of resin no nesting birds, is unsuitable as firewood or making furniture and the like. However, the biggest problem of pine trees is their lack of maintenance and neglect of the same, leading to dense forests, full of dry trees, which leads to easier flammability. This situation is the result of abandoned arable land, olive groves and fields that was created after the transformation of the island’s population that changed their main task from agricultural activities to tourism activities.