Gorski Kotar is bleeding: forests are falling, waste is growing, the future is disappearing. MERRY CHRISTMAS GK

Through a deep forest, we pass through the heart of Gorski kotar. Around us lie logs, scenes of carnage. Nature cries. Trucks loaded with dead trees pass by every few minutes, as if this has become the highway of death. The kilometers are lined up, and the heart is getting heavier. We come across a waste dump. We pause. We don't believe our eyes. Horror. The horror. There, in the distance, a crossroads – signposts, once messengers of direction, are now silent. Their messages no longer lead anywhere. Meaning? Gone. Fortunately, we know Gorski Kotar like the back of our hands. We don't need road signs. We know where we are going.

Gorski Kotar, Marko Sladić
Photo: Marko Sladić

We reach the clearing and look towards the top. There is a home there - a mountaineer's home. A former refuge, now ruined, destroyed by human carelessness. The heart tightens. I remember our toboggan run, picnic area, "ski area". When it snows, the wounds are hidden by a white blanket, but as soon as the snow melts, the reality comes out. There are tires, rusted constructions, waste in the meadows. A little further on, a huge old mountain home, once magnificent, is now crying out for renovation and love. In the clearing in front of us is a meadow and military history - destroyed buildings, dotted with graffiti. There are no markers, no story about what these places meant. Fortunately, we know. We know the history. We know what happened there.

We cross the state border. Quietly so that no one sees or hears us, we enter the neighboring, mountainous country, small and modest. This is the one we often make fun of in jokes with about 2 million people. But everything is in its place here. The trees stand proudly, so perfectly, as if someone had drawn them. No logs, no trash. In the middle of nowhere, a small village. Mountain houses located in a circle, connected by a path. Like a fairy tale. We drive on, the kilometers pass. Cows, bulls and oxen graze on the slopes. Pastures surrounded by wooden fences - not the rusty and metal ones like here.

Gorski Kotar, Marko Sladić
Photo: Marko Sladić

I turn on my cell phone, look for the location, when suddenly - a notification. Novi List reports on "big plans" for the development of astrotourism in Gorski kotar. The blinds are lowered before your eyes. I turn off my cell phone. I think about everything I've seen. Astrotourism? Observatories? While nature bleeds? The heart breaks.

Gorski Kotar is crying out for help. Gorski kotar should not be decorated with false promises about sustainability. Gorski needs concrete, real steps. Now. Immediately,

 Gorski kotar is not looking for stories. Gorski kotar is looking for works.

YOU NEED TO HEALING YOUR WOUNDS

Landfills are a shame for all of us. Up there, among rivers and forests, we hide plastic, traces of our own carelessness. How long will we do this? Until the forest that hides our shame disappears?

 THE FORESTS SHOULD BE SAVED FROM DESTRUCTION

Every tree that falls brings with it a silence - but not a peaceful one, but one that heralds the end. Every cut tree means a destroyed home for animals, a lost future for our children.

 RESTORE MOUNTAINEERING HOMES AND SHELTERS

They are not just a shelter from the rain. These are places of connection, where people find peace and nature. How can people learn to respect nature if we have nowhere to introduce them to its core?

 TO CULTURALLY MARK MILITARY HISTORY

Graffiti needs to be removed, plaques should be put up, stories should be told. Any ruin can be an open-air museum. Every object is a witness to the past that must not be forgotten.

 

MORE FEEDERS, NO HUNTING

Nature is not a battlefield. Animals deserve protection and peace, not guns and bullets.

 

EDUCATION IS THE KEY

Children are the future of Gorski kotar. If we don't teach them to love and protect nature, all this will become another story about the end. Children must know - nature is not a resource. Nature is a gift.

 

Gorski Kotar does not need "destinations." Gorski kotar should be a home - for people and animals, birds, rivers, forests. If we can't preserve it, we don't deserve it.

Gorski kotar, MERRY CHRISTMAS.

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