Report by Shuchi Giridhar
A tree from Poland has won the European tree of the year award for 2022. The tree to have won the award is a 400 year old oak tree.
At the award ceremony in Brussels, the organizers praised the tree saying that it signified the nature of the nation, warmth, and its hostility to violence.
The European Tree of the Year Competition has been going on since 2011.
It is also a way to connect countries through the common subject of trees. To decide which tree is going to be entered in the competition, the country first has a national competition to declare a tree the winner and then this tree is submitted into the main competition on the website.
Then, people vote on the website for the best tree. This year’s competition ceremony was held in Brussels on Tuesday 22nd March.
In the award ceremony the first three places were:
1. Poland with its 400 year old Polish oak tree.
2. The Santiago de Compostela region’s (of Spain) 250 year old oak tree
3. A 250 year old cork oak tree in Vale do Pereiro, a village located in Portugal.
The 400 year old oak tree entered by Poland was birthed by the last primeval forest in Europe’s lowlands, Bialowieza forest.
A primeval forest is an old forest that is allowed to grow with almost no disturbance. The forest stretches across the border of Poland and Belarus.
As of this year the construction of a wall began, to stop people and animals from the Middle East and Africa crossing into Poland.
Poland showed great enthusiasm in the competition. One of the organizers said that some countries show more enthusiasm than others. Nearly 770,000 votes were cast on the website this year.
All images from treeoftheyear.org
