Red Forest, Forest in Vyshhorod Raion, Ukraine

The Red Forest is a pine woodland near the former Chernobyl nuclear plant that earned its name from the reddish-brown color the trees turned after the reactor accident. The woodland sits within the exclusion zone and remains an area of elevated radiation monitored by scientists.

The woodland became heavily contaminated after the 1986 disaster and most of it was cleared, with the contaminated material buried on site. Since then, vegetation has slowly regrown, though radiation in the soil continues to persist.

The name comes from the ginger-brown colour the pines turned within about 30 minutes of the 1986 explosion. The area is now a "Radiological Reserve", an involuntary park where wild boar multiplied eightfold between 1986 and 1988.

Access to the woodland requires special permits and guidance from authorized personnel, as the entire area remains under strict control. Visitors must follow safety rules and are not allowed to remove anything from the zone.

New vegetation grows on contaminated soil that was plowed with heavy machinery to bury the original contaminated trees. This buried layer of organic remains forms a kind of underground time capsule of the accident.