FOREST SCULPTURE COMPETITION.

Peer, Vered · 1992

At one of the main centers of the Jewish National Fund in Beit Shemesh is held an annual stone sculpture competition. The sculptures are intended to be placed at the entrances to the country's forests to incorporate the name of the forest and the doner. The J.N.F. is responsible for the planting and maintaining iof the countries trees. In 1948 five million trees were planted, last year 190 million trees were planted up and down the country. By the end of the century the present 1.2 million dunams of land covered by forest is expected to increase to 1,5 million dunams. (A dunam is 1,000 square metres). Israel has always been one of the world's leading countries for tree conservation with far more trees being planted each year than are lost by natural means, arson and commercial felling. Photo shows one of the sculpturers working in the J.N.F competition in Beit Shemesh during the Pesach holiday.