Nursing, growing, and planting trees June 2009
June 19th -26th 2009 - Together with the students of the Green Campus we make camp in Khao Yai for a week. A number of jobs have to be done to be able to plant 10,000 trees during the upcoming rainy season: collecting seeds, planting, growing the seeds, and potting them. We also have to take care of the 26,000 trees we planted last spring. We’ll work on that throughout the rainy season. We focus on a field where we’ll remove weeds around the trees, and fertilize the trees. Upon arrival everyone is shocked by the amount of weeds, at some places it grows over our heads. But after a serious weeding expedition the field looks great. Most of the trees have survived, some are still small, but many have grown quite a bit this past year.
On this field, among the young trees, we plant a kind of palm tree which is very well loved by the elephants, a few days later. It’s impressive to see how this field has changed over the year. The field used to be a plantation, and it will take a lot of effort, but it is already a forest in the making.
We take the group of Dutch students to a Thai school, the students of which will join us in the nursery for a day. Even though they are the same age, the Thai look a lot younger. Both sides are a bit shy. Khun Alongkot, from partner organization WERF, manages to break the ice quite well.
The Thai students watch the Dutch students with amazement when they sing their self-made song ‘Plant A Tree With Me’. After some joint activities, everyone is having fun and people are connecting. Bring The Elephant Home gives a presentation about Trees For Elephants.
Group photo
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