Hasaka, Northeastern Syria (SANA)-Al-Assad Forest is one of the biggest artificial forests in Syria embracing various types of trees and wild animals.

Director of Hasaka Forest Department Ali Khallouf said that his section has started to plant trees in the forest since 1992, pointing out that it extends over an area of 1,050 hectares planted with 650,00 saplings.

Khallouf added that the forest was established near the northeastern Syrian Province of Hasaka for activating tourism and curbing pollution as it plays an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen in addition to preventing soil erosion and increasing the level of groundwater.

Several tree species grow in al-Assad Forest such as Aleppo pine and Atlantic terebinth. The large area of the wood has provided a suitable place for the diversity of wildlife where a lot of wild animals live in the forest such as rabbits, foxes, wild pigeons, hoopoes and snakes.

Forestry specialist at the Agriculture Department Riad al-Tarkhou said that al-Assad forest has suffered of many natural conditions such as the lack of rain in winter and the constant dust storms as many trees died and the ecosystem degraded, pointing out that his department works on solving these problems as it has afforested 135 hectares and put a plan on afforesting other 55 hectares in 2011.

Al-Tarkhou indicated that several measures have been taken by the Forest Department to rehabilitate the forest through planting various species of trees in al-Assad Forest according to scientific studies.

Ruaa al-Jazaeri/Ghossoun/Zahra