As the publication "Meteozhurnal" found out, from 2002 to 2017 the area of floodplain forests (temporarily flooded forests in river valleys, - approx. HT) in the Gokdere gorge (formerly Chuli) decreased from 99 to 60 hectares.

Trees several decades old were cut down during the construction of camps, rest homes and other structures in the gorge.

There were rest houses in Chuli in Soviet times, the journalists note, but then, during their construction, green areas were taken into account and new buildings were not torn apart. That is, it was an infill development within woody groves.

Large-scale construction began in Gökder in the 2000s. Many holiday camps were moved from the Firyuza gorge, closed for ordinary citizens, where the residences were first built for President Saparmurat Niyazov , and then for Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov .

The new projects did not take into account the existing green spaces and required cutting down of a large part of the groves, which consisted of perennial trees, for implementation.

Instead of destroyed valuable species of trees (elm, maple, carcass, dagdan, poplar, walnut, ash and others) and thickets of shrubs, including blackberries, mostly conifers are planted. Since large areas of plantings are located in elevated areas, and groundwater is much lower, such seedlings grow very slowly.

“Obviously, the natural value of these plantings cannot be compared with the natural groves of floodplain forests,”

Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan