Time to choose your nominees for the 18th annual contest – Tree of the year.

The prestigious contest attains the legal age. During the 18 years of its existence, the contest has gained numerous supporters and the people’s interest keeps growing. In 2020, we will once again seek for the most interesting stories from all over Slovakia.

For 18 years, the contest has been raising awareness of importance, value and beauty of the trees, helped to provide the necessary care and even saved the trees on multiple occasions. The goal of the contest has always been to draw people’s attention to the value of trees and their importance in our lives. I believe, we have been successful in our mission. We are very glad people are becoming more and more interested in the contest, and they understand the importance of tree protection,” says Peter Medveď, the director of Ekopolis Foundation.

Ekopolis Foundation announced the trees could be nominated to this year’s contest as of April 7, 2020. Candidate trees are to be nominated using an online form or sending an application form to Ekopolis Foundation. All information is available on Ekopolis Foundation website and on social networks. Individuals, municipalities, schools, companies and organizations can nominate their favourite tree until the end of April 2020.

“We would like to thank to our donors who have been supporting the contest for so many years. Thanks to their support, we have been able to organize the contest every year and for people of all generations,” adds Peter Medveď. Donors for 2020 are Slovenská sporiteľňa Foundation, ISA Slovensko (International Society for Arboriculture), Dajama Publishing house, Artforum Bookshop and ABIES Garden centre. Popular singer Peter Lipa will be a patron of the contest 9th time in a row.

After the nominations deadline, the expert committee will select 12 finalists that would compete to receive the title Tree of the year 2020 – a title that includes financial cover of professional care. The winner tree qualifies for European Tree of the Year contest.

“Due to COVID-19 pandemic, this year is different for all of us. It has become clear many of our usual activities will have to be modified, postponed to cancelled. Despite the limitations, we will use different activities and competitions and do our best to provide the contest experience our participants are used to from previous years, “ says Martina Ragalová, a PR manager at Ekopolis Foundation.

All information on nomination procedure can be found on www.ekopolis.sk – Tree of the Year section, or on Facebook.
Contacts: Ekopolis Foundation, Komenského 21, 974 01, Banská Bystrica,
PR and communications: Martina Ragalová, tel. 00421 908 371 289, ragalova@ekopolis.sk