NEWS

Update 34: Replanting in Pregj-Lurë

Spring replanting in Pregj-Lurë

As you can read in more detail in Update 22 about the 2024 planting and in Update 31 about the 2025 replanting, we still needed to finish the tree replanting in Pregj-Lurë, as we could not complete it during autumn and winter due to weather conditions. While the Black pine trees in the tree nursery are still in dormancy, we went back to Lurë this past weekend to finish replanting 1,300 trees. The area was practically replanted due to a very poor survival rate, especially in this area.

The terrain conditions (very rocky) and the orientation (south-east) contributed to a very low survival rate for the trees planted in 2024, so this year we followed up by replacing almost the whole area.

In addition to replanting in Pregj-Lurë, we also increased the number of trees replanted this year from 5,115 to 6,360. This brings the total number of trees we have planted to 44,351 trees!

We will be back in September 2026 for the second monitoring, and we hope to achieve a better survival rate than in the first year of planting.

Women and trees

Women’s Day found us in Lurë, replanting trees. Five women responded positively to Imer’s call, our Lurë local coordinator, to work for two days replanting trees.

It was bittersweet to see these women work on March 8. This is a clear example of the Albanian rural woman: always available to work, often smiling, and consistently going the extra mile for their family and their community. They demonstrate strength and resilience. We are fortunate to know and work with them.

They definitely deserve to be celebrated every day!

What’s next?

We will continue our work in both tree nurseries to prepare them for transplanting and seed planting. In the meantime, after cleaning all the seeds we will be planting this year, we will follow the protocols for seed stratification and patiently wait for the first seeds to germinate.

It will be a busy season, and we’re ready for it!