Kouri, an aesthetic oak forest (1.150 acres), the only oak forest in Europe on a lowland area, 2 km. NW of Almiros. The recreation area has ponds, bridges, a playground and a zoo (deer, deer, ducks, swans, peacocks). There is also a train that runs through the forest. At the entrance of the forest there is a café-bar-restaurant “Archontiko”.

The Kouri forest is a precious heritage of our region. It is located about 1000 meters northwest of the city of Almyros and 500 meters from the former community of Evxinoupolis.

In 1927, with the 1927 No. 35/1927 decision of the Administrative Court was granted to the then community and today the Municipality of Almyros. In 1970 it was declared reforested, with the decree no. 356/1980 Presidential Decree. Then it was included in the protected areas by Law 1650/86 for the protection of the environment.

The area it occupies is about 1150 acres and is mainly covered by “HNOODI DRY”. Its surface area is smaller than it was in the old days. Unfortunately, however, historical sources and official data do not exist.

So we are forced to rely on the testimonies of elders who grew up in the area and remember. The forest used to cover an area from Neochoraki to the beach of Almyros and from the streams of Platanos to the cholera near Aidini. That is an area of about 20,000 acres.

If you visit the area you will see trees similar to those of the Kouri forest, which are scattered throughout this area. This is a certification of the above information.

The causes that contributed to the reduction in forest area are many.

• Before the forest came under protection, it was a grazing area for local sheep and goat herds, either free or rented. We all know the damage that these ruminants can cause to young saplings of forest trees, especially when grazing is continuous and intense.
• The felling of trees was done arbitrarily and without a plan, so there was no care for its future. A long, prolonged frost in the 1950s destroyed many of the trees in the area, especially the small ones, and at the same time inhibited the natural reforestation of the area. In those years the demands of the inhabitants for heating increased.

So the source of firewood was the forest. With the increasing interest in agricultural products and the new demands for more land to cultivate, many forest trees were cut down.

This was also due to the fact that the area occupied by the forest was lowland, suitable as no other for agricultural use. The indifference that existed to a large extent among the inhabitants of the region, but also of the territory for the future of nature and our children was great. The absence of legislation, but also the many windows that existed in it, people’s poor appreciation of how useful this forest was in this location, and poor education, gave rise to its destruction. So that’s how we arrived at the present limited form of the forest. Kuri is still at risk and every day that passes, without effective action, valuable ground is lost.

From the Almyros – IN ACTION video, March 2008