As of 1949, the mountainous, rocky region of the corridor was bare of trees.[1] In the first decade of the State of Israel, a total of 35 agricultural settlements were established in the Jerusalem corridor by new immigrants from Yemen, Kurdistan, North Africa, Romania and Hungary.[1] The JNF employed many of the newcomers in afforestation and land reclamation. Since then it has become one of the largest afforested regions in the country.[1]