An oasis downtown Cherkasy
City authorities plan to make the botanical garden open for public
In the heart of Cherkasy there is a botanical garden. Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University takes care of this garden.
Initially, there were fruit trees growing on this land and later garden crops were cultivated. Since its inception in 1936 the garden had a status of the agrobiostation with a territory of 11.6 hectares. Today the area of the Botanical Garden is 4.75 hectares.
The collection consists of approximately 100 trees and 300 herbal taxonomic units (including 120 that are growing in green houses).
Tetiana NINOVA, director of the Education and Research Institute of Natural Sciences said that the Botanical Garden is used for scientific purposes, training, research, and also for preserving biodiversity. However, every year it is more and more difficult for the university to maintain it.
“That is why we have offered a reconstruction program for consideration by the Oblast Council. Of course, there is a small staff here – three employees, students help a little, but there should be a totally different approach to this,” said Ninova. According to her, the reconstruction project was developed back in 2007 but it only stayed on paper then. A complete reconstruction would require approximately five million hryvnias.
“Plants from China, North America, Europe, and Asia are gathered here. We are making a collection of rare and endangered species of Cherkasy region, Ukraine, and the world. Our main goal is to make a collection which could be later presented to school and university students. It is especially important to visit a botanical garden for those interested in nature and green tourism.
Apart from plants, one could study species of birds from all over the Cherkasy region, listen to singing of bluebirds, finches, and other birds. We also have squirrels around here,” said Oleksandr Spriahailo, a university professor. He also stressed that it would be great if local authorities could finally pay attention to the Botanical Garden because it would be possible to have outdoor classes for school students in form of excursions.
Especially in view of the fact that the City Mayor Serhii Odarych has recently announced that this year the city government has planned to change the status of the Botanical Garden and help to restore at least some of its regular tours. For it is true that many people in Cherkasy still do not know that this oasis exists.
