«Mykolaiv Parks» are requesting 1.2 hectares of land to store felled trees

Felled trees in Mykolaiv’s Peremohu Park, photo by NikVesti

The municipal enterprise «Mykolaiv Parks» plans to acquire a plot of land measuring approximately 1.2 hectares in the Inhulskyi district. The enterprise wishes to officially use it for storing timber obtained from pruning and felling trees in the city.

This came to light during a meeting of the Mykolaiv City Council’s land commission on 27 July, according to NikVesti.

The plot in question is an undeveloped site near 209 Kovalska Street. Councillors considered a draft resolution proposing to grant the municipal enterprise permission to draw up a land-use plan for the subsequent registration of the land for permanent use.

According to Hanna Remennikova, head of the Inhulskyi District Administration, this area is in fact already being used by the enterprise.

«They want this site to store timber. Because the trees they’re felling need to be stored somewhere. In fact, they’re already using it; it’s littered with trees. I went to have a look. We need to grant them permission so that everything is above board,» she said.

If the city council approves the decision, the company will be able to draw up a land-use plan and then register the plot for permanent use.

Tree pruning in Mykolaiv

In March 2022, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych announced that poplars would be felled in Mykolaiv to build dugouts and provide heating for people at checkpoints. Later, Dmytro Bezdolnyi, director of the city council’s housing and utilities department, clarified that the felled poplars were used not only for fortifications but also to heat social care facilities and hospitals.

As early as May 2023, the municipal enterprise «Mykolaiv Parks» commissioned services worth 5 million hryvnias for tree removal, sanitary and rejuvenation pruning, stump removal and tree planting within the city. The plan involved planting 50 young maple trees. At the time, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, asked local residents whether it was worth purchasing tree and shrub seedlings.

In February 2024, Mykolaiv Parks pruned the plane trees on Soborna Street, which caused outrage among residents.

In early February 2024, environmentalists asked the city authorities to draw up a programme of guidelines for the maintenance of green spaces in Mykolaiv. Prior to this, no development plan for green spaces had been drawn up, and the last inventory of plantings was carried out in 2018.

In August 2024, councillor Alla Riazhskykh proposed introducing a three-year moratorium on rejuvenation pruning of trees. Exceptions could be made in cases approved by the State Environmental Inspectorate of the South-Western District.

Alla Riazhskykh recalled that as far back as 2023, a recommendation had been adopted at regional level to draw on the experience of other cities and establish rules for tree crown reduction and the management of green spaces. The city authorities and the Department of Housing and Communal Services responded to the proposal, but experts from «Mykolaiv Parks» preferred to continue with «rejuvenation» pruning.

In January 2025, the Mykolaiv Department of Housing and Communal Services announced that it had already prepared a draft resolution to introduce a moratorium on three-yearly tree pruning and was awaiting its consideration at a council meeting.

In February 2025, during a session of the city council, councillors did not have enough votes to support a moratorium on rejuvenation pruning of trees across the city.

In March 2025, Alla Riazhskykh, a member of the regional council, called on councillors at the city council session to support the moratorium on rejuvenation pruning of trees in Mykolaiv, which had previously failed to secure a sufficient number of votes. She explained that the resolution does not ban sanitary or formative pruning, but merely restricts the removal of more than 30 per cent of the crown, which, she said, causes damage to the city’s green spaces.