This year the trees will be planted in autumn, not in spring as usual. “The weather conditions the previous years showed that only 5% of the trees planted during the spring greening campaign took roots,” Minister of the Environment Gheorghe Salaru said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. “During the last few years the weather after winter grew warmer suddenly. The last three springs the temperatures in April were higher than 20 degrees Celsius. The trees were planted in cold soil and they did not develop roots. The excessively high temperatures dried the leaves of the nonadapted trees,” said the minister. According to him, more trees will take roots if they are planted in autumn, when the conditions are favorable. “After 2001, trees were planted yearly on an area of 1,000 hectares, but the size of the wooded areas remained the same. But this does not mean that no trees should be planted in spring,” he said. At the end of last November, the then Acting President Mihai Ghimpu issued a decree, instituting the National Greening Day “A Tree for our Eternity” on the last Saturday of October. Mihai Ghimpu amended thus the decree issued by ex-President Mircea Snegru in 1995, under which the National Greening Day was celebrated on the first Saturday of April. The greening and cleaning activities are organized by the Ministry of the Environment and Moldsilva Agency.