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Work is scheduled to start in August. According to the municipality, the reconstruction project was prepared in cooperation with specialists and experts from the Lithuanian Society of Dendrologists, protected areas, the State Forest Service and other areas. Comments and suggestions from Kaunas residents were also taken into account.
Kauno keliai agrees to order the Ąžuolynas Park within 22 months. In carrying out the improvement of the park infrastructure in the 62.6 hectare area, the company will have to follow the park management and protection measures provided for in the Kaunas Plan.
The park renovation will preserve the existing road network: a curved alley with branched tracks that run the length of the entire oak. The pavement of the existing asphalt roads is planned to be updated, and the natural dirt roads will be reinforced by filling them with rubble.
The park will also be equipped with a new bicycle route, the route of which, according to the findings of the dendrologists, has been adjusted so that the route rotates at a safe distance from valuable vegetation, playgrounds and pedestrian areas.
It was also decided to clean the sites under the old oak crowns so as not to trample on the roots of the trees. A cognitive path will be established to learn about biodiversity.
It is planned to update the lighting, build new benches, away from the old oak trees there will be a rest area, a gym and a playground. The oak grove will be equipped with two public toilets, existing bridges will be repaired and other infrastructure of the park will be renovated.
The work plan foresees making stairs to Tunelio Street and Radvilėnai Highway on a screw base.
The municipality emphasizes that Ąžuolynas, which belongs to the Natura 2000 network, will be subject to regular technical and environmental supervision of the project’s implementation, construction, so that the work carried out by the contractor will proceed exactly according to the plan. It is planned to verify the quality of the construction work carried out and the construction materials and equipment used and compliance with the strict requirements.
“All work is planned so that the endangered oaks and other rare plants, bird species and beetles that live here do not suffer. Only small equipment will be used for the works and the recommendations of the environmentalists will be strictly followed,” The Mayor of Kaunas, Visvaldas Matijošaitis, quotes in the report.
5.67 million The funds of the European Union, the Government and the municipality will allocate 1 billion euros for reconstruction.
Last year, a nature management plan for Kaunas Ąžuolynas was prepared and approved by order of Environment Minister Kęstutis Mažeika.
For the second year in a row, arborists in Ąžuolynas are repairing and strengthening the canopies of protected trees and removing dry branches. Specialists are responsible for improving the soil under oak trees by fertilizing, loosening and mulching, opening protected tree openings, removing masonry, concrete residue and other debris.
In the park territory, according to the nature management project, the invading ash maples are destroyed, the posts of the old oak trees are cleaned of low-value vegetation and shrubs, thus creating favorable conditions for a new generation of oak trees establish and grow and extend the life of century-old oak trees.
The park’s initial renovation project, presented in 2018, has been criticized for its bad publicity, for fear that the plan will open its hands to the large fellings of trees in the wooded park, leaving large open meadows that are not characteristic of it. .
After criticism, the municipality agreed to adjust the project and called on residents to submit proposals. About 30 of them were received and, according to the municipality, were taken into account.
According to the data of the municipality of Kaunas, around 770 oaks grow in the Ąžuolynas Park, and the most unique value of this park are the oaks from 100 to 300 years old, whose trunk diameter reaches 100 to 160 centimeters.
This park houses one of the rarest beetles in Lithuania and Europe, the dark-colored golden beetle, and is also protected as a European Natura 2000 ecological network site.
The grove is estimated to be several thousand years old. In 2005, 59 bird species were recorded in the park’s territory during nature diversity research, 29 bird species were included in the lists of endangered species in Europe.
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