Tree maintenace and fire break cutting at Salakpra
An update of the activities of our project Trees for Wild Elephants, from June 2010 until May 2011. We are ready for the next tree planting event!
In June 2010, 13,125 trees were planted at 3 planting sites inside Salakpra wildlife Sanctuary, as a partnership between Bring the Elephant Home, Elephant Conservation Network and Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary. This was the 3rd year of the joint tree planting project inside Salakpra forest. Each year, after planting trees, we focus on taking care of the planted trees. This way we will make sure that the trees can compete with the fast-growing weed, will have a high survival rate and can grow very well. The planted trees need maintenance every 4 - 6 weeks after the planting day, until the end of the 1st and 2nd rainy season or until the forest recovers (within the next 2 – 3 years). From our survey at the end of last years rainy season (October 2010) we found that up to 70 - 75% of the planted trees survived and were healthy. After the rainy season we didn’t need to do weeding anymore, because with the hot weather it’s better to leave some grasses to cover the soil to keep moisture for our young trees.
For this coming rainy season 2011, BTEH will again plant trees inside Salakpra wildlife sanctuary, for the 4th time, thanks to the support of the World Wildlife Fund Netherlands (WWF). The aim of the project is to improve the habitat of the wild elephants and to solve human-elephant conflicts between wild elephants and local people living around the sanctuary. We will announce the confirmed date and time of the tree planting event at Kanchanaburi on our website soon. We are looking for groups of volunteers, so if you have any network with an interest in conservation, please contact us for more information: info@bring-the-elephant-home.org or call (083) 566 5223.
Please join us to save the world for Thai elephants, make new friends, learn about wildlife conservation and have a great weekend. Hopefully we will have the support from many volunteers, like in the previous years.
Click more for the details and a photo overview of the activities on the project site!
Every dry season, there is a risk of forest fire, which can damage our planting sites seriously. Therefore we need to cut a fire break to stop forest fire, before it spreads to our planting sites. This year, during January - April 2011, we arranged to cut a fire break three times, with the help of many volunteers: firstly, on January 28, 2011: students from Mahidol University, Kanchanaburi campus (20 people). Secondly, on March 12, 2011: the volunteers from Standard Chartered Bank with local villagers and forest rangers (60 people) and thirdly, on April 28, 2011: the volunteers from SCASSET company (55 people). With the support of all volunteers and local people, our activities were done successfully and went well.
Fortunately, it rained during the dry season this year as well, so the forest fire in Thailand was much less this year (In Salakpra only a short time in mid of February) compared to previous years. From our survey, at the end of the dry season (April 2011), we found out that most of the trees survived, more than 60 - 70% and some tree species have grown very fast such as Codia cochinchinensis (Mhan), Phyllanthus emblica (Ma Kham Pom), Pterocarpus macrocarpus (Pradu Bah) and Oroxylum indicum (Pay ka).
Various volunteer groups joined us to do tree maintenance during the whole rainy season of 2010 (July - November) such as the IMBA students from Thammasart university, staff from Macquarie company and staff from Pattanayayont group. The volunteers work together with local villagers and forest rangers.
Planting sites during rainy season in October 2010, planted trees covered with the fast-growing weeds and grasses. This made it so difficult to find the small trees under the high weeds.
Last tree maintenance event in 2010, for 10 days the local villagers and forest rangers worked together to take care of the young trees.
The workers arranged weeding and applied fertilizer at our planting sites, to help them grow quickly and to compete with fast-growing weeds.
Planting sites after tree maintenance.
Fire break cutting in dry season 2011(January - April 2011)
Head of Salakpra ranger station explains about the planting area and how to do the fire break.
Tools for making the fire break.
Volunteer started to make the fire break by cutting grasses and moving fallen bamboo trunks and tree branches from the fire break area.
After clearing all the fallen tree/bamboo branch, volunteers used hoes and harrows to drag away the dry leaves and weeds from from the fire break line.
Finally volunteers used brooms to drag away the dry leaves and weeds from the fire break line.
The local kids came to help the volunteers.
Fire brake line 5 meter wide all around the planting sites after clearing all material that can be fuel for forest fire.
Phyllanthus emblica (Ma Kham Pom), one of the fast-growing tree species in our planting sites. It grow up more than 2m within 10 months and creates a big shade.
Oroxylum indicum (Pay ka) is one of the tree species that can grow very fast and has high survival rate.
