Green Afula gets even more colorful: as part of Afula's municipality to establish parks and public gardens throughout the city, Mayor Avi Elkabetz signed a new collaboration between the municipality and the management of KKL-JNF's northern region, to turn the Special Species Grove into a community forest.
The program provides the neighborhood residents an opportunity to play a part in the development of both the look and the content of the community forest. The grove is located between the new neighborhood, Green Afula, and the Grove Road which will be paved soon and connect the neighborhood to detour Road 65, which is set for completion soon.
As part of the project, KKL-JNF has created over twenty community forests all over the country. Soon, Afula will join the cities that already have a community forest, which promotes community, social and environmental activity, including trustees activity and public participation in caring for the forest.
Shali Ben-Yishai, manager of KKL-JNF's northern region: "as a forester, I come a full circle today as the one who originally rehabilitated the Eucalyptus Grove and the Moreh Stream next to the grove, and I couldn't be happier. KKL-JNF is proud to announce the opening of a community forest in Afula, and in doing so turning the "back yard" into a "front yard" – an environmental resource for quality living, which provides recreation, health, and comfort for future generations. Today's signing connects the community and the forest, literally."
Mayor Avi Elkabetz thanked KKL-JNF, which collaborates on several projects in the city as the Moreh Stream Park and said that, "the community forest project in the Green Afula Grove is another collaboration which promotes protection of the natural environment within the city and in its surroundings."