History of the Forests in Israel

History of the Forests in Israel

About 6% of Israel is covered with forests. Most forests in Israel are planted Coniferous forests. After hundreds of years, most of the forest and natural woodlands in the Land of Israel were cut down for the purpose of clearing land for agriculture and for pasturesS, and for using forest trees as raw materials for Construction and heating.

The forests and parks did not exist in Israel. The first Jewish settlers who arrived in Israel at the end of the last century found a desolate land almost without trees.

The forests were planted systematically from the 1920s, initially primarily by the Forest Service of the British Mandate Government and between 1936-1948 by the independent Forest Department that inherited it and created closed forest reserves. The area that the British government planted for thirty years reached 54,000 dunams (about 0.2% of the land, or 0.5% of its non-desert area). KKL-JNF** planted 12,880 acres and in the areas owned by PICA (A Jewish settlement company in Israel established by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild)  forests were planted on 6,500 acres at that time.

In the State of Israel there is a single organization responsible for the forests and afforestation and is called the KKL-JNF.

KKL-JNF is a public benefit organization founded as a Zionist organization at the Fifth Congress of the Zionist Organization in 1901 as a means of collecting funds from Jews for the purpose of buying land in Israel and preparing them for Jewish settlement.

In 1904, in parallel with its land acquisition activity, the KKL-JNF initiated the planting of olive trees on the lands of Ben Shemen and Hulda that had just been purchased under the British Mandate.

The goals of afforestation at that time were concentrated mainly to blossom the desert and to declare ownership of the territories.The first afforestation activities of the KKL-JNF were mainly planting fruit trees and broad-leaf trees, most of which failed for various reasons. The KKL-JNF therefore decided to plant coniferous trees.

The State of Israel was established in 1948. After the establishment of the State of Israel, the responsibility for preparing the land was transferred to another organization in Israel, but the operation and maintenance of the purchased land remained under the responsibility of the KKL-JNF.

To this day, KKL-JNF is the only organization in Israel responsible for afforestation activities under a treaty signed between the KKL-JNF and the State of Israel. The KKL-JNF's forestry officials have been responsible for afforestation and for the conservation and rehabilitation of mature trees in Israel in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Since the establishment of the state, the KKL-JNF has planted more than 240 million trees over 920,000 acres, and the KKL-JNF is responsible for the treatment of 400,000 acres of natural woodland and about 400,000 acres of grazing land.

From the beginning of afforestation until the 1980s, extensive methods were used to prepare the areas for the planting of pioneer forests (trees that are fast growing and short-lived), the main species of which was Jerusalem pine.

Over time, these methods have aroused considerable opposition among the public, claiming the destruction of natural vegetation, the destruction of the landscape, the establishment of "green pine deserts" and more.

However, Jerusalem pine has been and continues to be the main species used in afforestation, mainly due to the ecological conditions of the Land of Israel.

The planting goals changed according to the times.

In the past, planting forests came to meet immediate needs such as protecting extensive land areas and preserving land. Today, the forests have a variety of other functions, such as improving the environment - "green lungs", providing recreational needs and improving grazing.

In 1995, a national master plan for forests and afforestation was created and all the organizations in the country are acting accordingly. The objectives of the program are:

1. To define and determine forest areas in Israel.

2. To determine the permitted activities in forest areas.

The plan was created to protect the forests in Israel. The main protection of the forests stems from the determination that only 5% of the existing forest area (or in some cases up to 10%) can be changed to a designation other than a forest, and onky after a proper planning process. However, it is permitted to make some use of forest land for security purposes, and it is also permitted to build infrastructure facilities including roads in the forest.

As of November 2008, every mature tree in Israel is protected by law. A person who wishes to cut down an adult tree or relocate it must obtain approval from the authorized official who is the forest official responsible for the area in which the tree grows, the forest clerk of the JNF, the municipality, the regional council or the local council.

Today, Israel's forests cover an area of about 1.621 million acres, slightly more than 7% of the total area of the State of Israel. Israel is one of the only countries in the world that the number of trees are increasing every year and it is consistently throughout the years ever since there establishment of the state of Israel.

Some forest, as the one that we are using for our site, are manage just by letting it grow widely by itself. The law in Israel is that you can only start fires in the forests if you have special permission from the fire department or in a very few designated areas throughout the Israeli forests.This is due to a large number of forest fires that happened years ago.