In the second half of September, more precisely on 22nd and 23rd September, we hosted the project partners of the Alptrees Interreg Alpine space project at the institute. We met at the 15th meeting of the steering group, where we reviewed, in addition to financial obligations, the progress and results of all the work packages, which were not few, and also made future plans. The presentation took place in a hybrid form, which made us very happy, as we met some of the colleagues in person for the first time.
The next day was more dynamic, as we headed towards Primorska, namely in the urban forest Panovec, where about half of the tree species are non-native due to intentional introductions in the past. Colleagues Aleksander Marinšek and Ajša Alagić took us through space and time by storytelling and visiting the forest. We had the opportunity to see many different alien species, both herbaceous and woody, namely American pokeweed, red oak, black locust, Eastern white pine, bald cypress, tulip tree, princess tree, Osage orange, desert false indigo, Lawson cypress, and others. We continued our journey along the stands of the alien Douglas fir near Postojna, which suffered the least damage among all tree species in the ice break in 2014. The professional excursion ended with a visit to the natural values of Rakov Škocjan, which, together with Lake Cerknica and Križna jama, has been declared an internationally important wetland - the Ramsar site.
Photo: Aleksander Marinšek and Ajša Alagić
