Forest district chiefs across Romania have been relocated to treetops by order of the Ministry of Environment, the ministry confirmed on Monday, after the political dispute over the reform of Romsilva reached the country's forests. Staff of the nineteen remaining directorates now work from platforms built at a height of twelve metres, and no official is permitted to descend before the end of the reform.
The minister's office said the decision followed a Facebook exchange in which the Social Democrat leader Sorin Grindeanu announced a campaign of «dezuserizare», and a rival party leader asked whom the reform would ultimately benefit. «A ministry that cannot agree on its own direction must at least be seen to be above the ground,» a ministry spokesperson said, adding that the relocation was voluntary in the sense that the alternative was a reassignment to the rolling of the national archive, which no one had requested.
Forty-one former directorates were reduced to nineteen, and each remaining chief now receives inspection reports, pay slips and ministerial memoranda by a basket on a pulley. Several officials have requested that their bicycles be hoisted up too. Engineers from the Romsilva board have begun constructing a rope bridge between the two largest oak stands, which the ministry describes as the first permanent interministerial corridor in the history of the state.
Asked whether the treetop arrangement would be extended to the Foreign Ministry, a spokesperson for the diplomatic service replied that recruitment interviews for the coming decade will be conducted from the crowns of linden trees in Herăstrău Park. Applicants have been asked to bring their own harnesses. Ministry sources say the first candidates are expected to arrive by climbing spikes next week.