For over 15 years, the city of Paris has planned to plant a new forest on the plain at Pierrelaye-Bessancourt, an outer suburb. But the plan has faced roadblocks as people debate the best use for the land.
French politicians are now actively pushing to make the re-greening project a reality.
The SMAPP plan calls for 5.2 square miles of trees and plants. For perspective, that's about five times the size of New York City's Central Park.
Take a look.
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The forest would be approximately 18 miles northwest of Paris' city center.
Source: CityLab
The site at Pierrelaye-Bessancourt borders roads and is close to the Seine River.
For around a century, Pierrelaye-Bessancourt has been a literal wasteland. From 1896 to the 1990s, the city of Paris sprayed sewage residue across 865 acres of the fields to fertilize them. (Researchers later concluded the technique polluted the soil.)
Today, the area acts as an unofficial landfill for Parisian trash.
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