Gyeongbuk Yecheon-gun Launches 'Healing Yecheon' Project with Forest Integration

Injecting Vitality into Forestry Projects with a 20 Billion Won Budget Injection

Satellite map of Gamcheon-myeon area, Yecheon-gun, Gyeongbuk. [Image source=KakaoMap]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Gwiyeol] Yecheon-gun, Gyeongbuk Province, is investing 20 billion KRW in the forestry sector to improve quality of life and respond to diverse forest demands.

To enhance economic and public value, this year 4 billion KRW will be allocated to forest maintenance and public forest management projects covering 960 hectares of public and private forests. While establishing a forest management foundation through afforestation projects on 161 hectares to prevent forest disasters and reduce fine dust, emphasis will be placed on creating competitive forests.

Focusing on the area damaged by the wildfire in Gamcheon-myeon last year, trees that can be developed as tourism resources are being planted in clusters to transform the wildfire-damaged area into a new forest tourism asset for Yecheon.

With a budget of 2.2 billion KRW to establish a production-processing-distribution system for forest products and improve income for forestry workers, Yecheon plans to strengthen its unique forestry competitiveness through projects such as scaling up forest product production complexes, eco-friendly forest product cultivation management, forest product production and distribution infrastructure development, Baekdudaegan support projects, and enhancing the competitiveness of local representative forest products.

Flower pots will be installed on major bridges and sidewalks in the city area, including Yecheongyo Bridge, to create beautiful streets, and 2.5 billion KRW will be invested over two years to transform the abandoned railway site in Yecheon-eup into a nature-friendly park.

To improve residential conditions in the provincial government new town in Homyeong-myeon and create cultural spaces, 500 million KRW will be invested in the Beomuri Park forest playground to expand the insufficient play facilities, and 300 million KRW will be used to create an educational forest experience center, a child-friendly facility, in Neighborhood Park No. 1 next to the provincial government 119 Safety Center.

Additionally, the small stream walking trail around the central shopping district will be extended, and the waterfront park fine dust blocking forest project will be expanded into leisure and relaxation spaces over two years with a total project cost of 8 billion KRW.

To revitalize the Wood Culture Experience Center entering its fourth year since opening, national and provincial government funds will be used to create an outdoor garden and operate various regular and weekend experience programs to continuously attract visitors.

A Yecheon-gun official said, “As COVID-19 prolongs, interest in resting spaces to overcome COVID blues is increasing, so we will create a healing Yecheon-gun together with forests. We will do our best to ensure that forestry projects become a new growth engine.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.