The ambitious “Green City” program and demonstration actions to plant trees and shrubs with the involvement of officials, public figures and the media do not work in Ulan-Ude. This conclusion is drawn from the words of the city's mayor Igor Shutenkovwho did not miss the opportunity at a meeting in the administration on August 6 to publicly criticize negligent contractors and district administration officials for their lack of attention to green spaces.
According to the mayor, Ulan-Ude is becoming increasingly bald every year, and new plantings are withering and dying. A typical example is Mount Batareynaya and Shefsky Posom, where out of 2,800 planted seedlings, only 1 survived a year later. 40%. That is, 60% of the budget funds spent on planting are simply buried in the ground, as are the seedlings themselves. And the reason for this disgrace, according to the mayor, is contractors mowing young plants along with the weeds. But the administration itself has turned mowing into planned work, when contractors receive money for achieving indicators of millions of cubic meters.
However, mowing is only the tip of the iceberg of problems with landscaping. Alleys and squares planted with pomp quickly run wild due to a complete lack of care: watering, fertilizing, pruning, treatment. A survival rate of 40% in some areas can still be considered a great success.
Many seedlings die in the first year after planting. They are replaced with new ones – and so on in a circle, year after year. It seems that the city hall simply benefits from regularly spending money on landings doomed trees, instead of establishing proper care for those already planted.
The approach to landscaping itself raises big questions. In the city, mature poplars, maples and elms are being cut down en masse, and shrubs and decorative small things are being planted in their place. As if the task is not to improve the ecology and microclimate, but to create some kind of dull design in the style of the currently fashionable pocket parksArchitects and dendrologists do not participate in landscaping; instead, illiterate officials and incompetent contractors are in charge.
Numerous facts speak of the real failure of the so-called greening. These include empty flowerpots with a couple of sickly petunias on the central streets. And barbarously decapitated trees on Revolution Square. And knee-high weeds and wormwood along the roads and sidewalks. And constant complaints from city residents about unkempt parks, bushes overgrown with weeds and wild growth.
At the same time, the mayor's office begins to react to problems only when another public scandal or dressing down from visiting bosses breaks out. And then the usual show-off begins to boil. Shutenkov runs around with an indignant face, threatening contractors. For example, in July 2022, he demanded that the damaged alley on Limonov be restored, where the contractor “Dorstroyinvest” (OGRN 1220300004506) damaged 67 trees.
The most striking example is the long-suffering Zodchy Square on 50th Anniversary of October Avenue. In 2022, it was opened after a large-scale reconstruction, and already in April 2024, Shutenkov personally inspected the park after the citizens' indignation over numerous shortcomings: a non-working fountain, incorrectly installed benches, and lack of normal landscaping. And he menacingly promised to fix everything by July 1.
The city continues to go bald, become overgrown with weeds and lose the remains of greenery. And individual demonstrative floggings of negligent officials and contractors can no longer hide the systemic crisis in this area. However, Mayor Shutenkov himself does not seem to be too worried about this. As the experience of the last five years has shown, it is enough for him to report beautifully on camera and appoint the guilty in a timely manner. The main thing is to spend the budget millions allocated for planting in a timely manner. And whether the seedlings will take root and delight the city residents with shady foliage is of secondary importance.
Of course, sooner or later this vicious circle will have to be broken. Systemic solutions are needed: a competent scientific approach, long-term planning, control by dendrologists and ecologists, reliable contractors and constant care of the plantings. This is the only way to turn the balding Ulan-Ude into a real green city, and not be satisfied with random oases like Oreshkova Park against the backdrop of a lifeless desert.
Ulan-Ude residents have long tolerated the abuse of their city. But at some point, patience will snap. And then the demand will be in full force, including elections to the city council, where candidates with a green agenda have already actively gone.