Permanent Preservation of Seeds from the 'Uljin Haenggok-ri Drooping Pine' That Escaped the Wildfire

Cultural Heritage Administration Collects Seeds and Sends to Seed Vault Center
Permanent Storage at 60m Underground "Twenty Cases to Be Collected Within the Year"

The seeds of the 'Uljin Haenggok-ri Drooping Pine,' which narrowly escaped the flames, will be permanently preserved.

On the afternoon of the 5th, the Cultural Heritage Administration collected seeds from the Uljin Haenggok-ri Drooping Pine located in Haenggok-ri, Geunnam-myeon, Uljin, Gyeongbuk, and sent them to the Seed Vault Center at the Baekdudaegan National Arboretum. The seed vault is a seed storage facility created to preserve plant resources from various disasters such as climate change, wildfires, and floods. Seeds are permanently stored in an underground facility 60 meters deep.

In April, the Cultural Heritage Administration signed a business agreement with the Korea National Arboretum. This seed collection and preservation is a follow-up measure based on that agreement. The Cultural Heritage Administration stated, "This is the first seed collection of the Uljin Haenggok-ri Drooping Pine," and added, "We plan to collect twenty plant seed cases within the year, including the ginkgo tree at Munmyo in Seoul and eight pagoda trees at Changdeokgung Palace."

The Uljin Haenggok-ri Drooping Pine, estimated to be 350 years old, was designated as a natural monument in 1999. It was planted around the time the village was established and has been protected as a symbol. Its branches droop downward, making it a valuable and rare tree.

This tree narrowly escaped the wildfire that occurred in March in Uljin and the Gangwon area. At that time, the Cultural Heritage Administration took preemptive measures such as relocating some cultural properties near the wildfire site and spraying water and attaching fire-retardant sheets to immovable cultural properties like natural monuments and historic buildings.