Last chance to cast your vote for the mulberry tree of Krka National Park

We have entered into the final week of voting for the 2024 European Tree of the Year competition. Voting ends on 22 February, and until then you can cast your vote at the link. The winning tree will be proclaimed on 20 March at a ceremony at the European Parliament in Brussels. For all those who have voted or are about to, we thank you.

The Green Lady of Krka National Park is competing in exceptionally interesting company. Also running for the title are 14 trees from throughout Europe, some of which, like the Italian Olive Tree of Luras, are more than a thousand years old. Other candidates are the Oak that Remembers the Palffy Family (Slovakia), Camellia (Portugal), Kanepju Oak (Latvia), Patriarch Tree (Lithuania), Pear Tree in the Middle of a Field (Czech Republic), Cedar of College Sainte-Marie (Belgium), Heart of the Garden (Poland), Millennial Oak (Ukraine), La Vega Oak (Spain), Viiralt’s Oak (Estonia), Weeping Birch of Bayeaux (France), Maria’s Lemon Tree (Netherlands), and Sweet Chestnut from Wrexham’s Acton Park (Great Britain). All these trees are telling their long stories, as this is the essence of the competition. The goal of the competition is to show the connections between trees and the local community, and their deep-rootedness in the lives and customs of people.

The international Tree of the Year competition was first held in 2011, inspired by the popular Tree of the Year festival held for years before in Czech Republic, organised by the Czech Environmental Protection Association.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of voters across Europe and beyond vote for their favourites. The Republic of Croatia joined the competition in 2017, when the candidacy was accepted of the Public Institution for the Management of Protected Natural Values of Dubrovnik-Neretva County to be the national coordinator of the competition on behalf of the Republic of Croatia. In partnership with the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb, the company Croatian Forests, and the Croatian Agrometeorological Society, this public institution became the organiser of the national competition, Croatia’s Tree of the Year.

Previous trees representing Croatia at the European Tree of the Year competition were the Asian Plane Tree on the Square in Trsteno (took 7^th place in 2018), Gubec’s Linden Tree from Gornja Stubica (11^th place in 2019), Ginkgo in Love from Daruvar (2^nd place in 2020), Hackberry – the Oldest Chocolate Tree of Our Memories of Medulin (10th place in 2021), Mamutovac – Century’s old Giant in the Heart of Slavonia (11th place in 2022), and the Pedunculate Oak from Drežničko Polje (16th place in 2023).