Tree-planting for more employment

In this time of recession here is a way to generate employment through nature consevation

In August 1995, I was in New Zealand for a brief work-related trip. While on my way to a dairy farm, I noticed that the forest formations on the hills on both sides of the road did not look like natural growth. They looked organized. I asked my guide from the New Zealand Dairy Cooperatives and learned from him that during the Great Depression in the early 1930s the New Zealand government decided to solve the unemployment problem by mobilizing many of the jobless to plant trees.

I checked the website of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and learned that the reforestation undertaken in New Zealand back then was so massive that by 1936, some 300,000 hectares of land were planted with trees. That tree-planting effort bore fruit decades later when the trees were mature enough to be harvested and became the resource base of New Zealand’s timber industry.

Now, getting thousands of unemployed Filipinos to work planting trees is an investment truly worth some billions of government and private sector funds. With higher unemployment anticipated next year because of the global economic downturn, this option deserves serious thought and action.

Perhaps, next summer, tens of thousands of college graduates and other job-seekers can be hired by the government and the private sector to plant trees all over the country. This could even be a continuing program and long-term solution to unemployment and underemployment in our country.

One place they can go to is Rodriquez (formerly Montalban) town in Rizal province, near the Wawa Dam. I was there last January for a tree-planting expedition of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), as a friend of the SVD. Many of the Montalban hills have no forest cover, just lots of grass. If Rodriguez and other areas with little or no forest cover do not grow new forests soon, the water supply of future Filipinos will be in grave danger.

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The painting is by Benjamin Williams Leader

Children branch out into tree planting

BUDDING gardeners from two Fylde schools have been planting trees so generations of children will be able to enjoy watching them grow.
Children from Hall Park School, Lytham, and Lytham C of E School helped plant two silver birches and a rowan tree in school grounds.

Fylde Council donated the trees and Lytham in Bloom Group gave a helping hand to ensure they were bedded in properly.

The green-themed donation was part of a bid to help improve the children's environment and also to get Lytham ready for the Britain in Bloom competition next year.

Jim Leak from Lytham in Bloom said: "We are happy to support the tree planting and are grateful to the council for donating the trees.

"Both schools have gardening clubs and we work closely with them both throughout the year. We thank them both for their support to the In Bloom initiative."

The Lytham in Bloom group led the area to victory in the North West in Bloom competition in October for the best Coastal Resort category and sealed the nomination for Britain in Bloom, which will be judged next August.

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The painting is by Benjamin

Williams Leader

Aberdeen tree-planting scheme takes root

Move to provide shelter for playing fields

A SCHEME to plant hundreds of trees in an Aberdeen park got under way yesterday.

Around 40 oak, ash and elm trees were planted in Cummings Park, which houses Northfield Academy’s playing fields and a section that was renamed last year after Allan Douglas, a young soldier from the area who died in Iraq.

The work was done by Aberdeen Greenspace Volunteer Group with members of the surrounding community and Aberdeen City Council.

Council community planning officer Fraser Clyne said: “The work will improve the amenity of Allan Douglas Park and provide shelter for Northfield Academy playing fields. All the trees are native species and will be a great attraction for wildlife.”

A total of 2,500 trees will be planted in the park as part of a wider programme of planned improvements, which include an all-weather football pitch.

The painting is by Benjamin Williams Leader