Perhaps we need to be doing moreof this. Tree planting is about manhours. This is one way of getting themout.
We used to do Arbor Day as schoolchildren and it was used to do spring ground work. Turning it in a giant tree planting day is agreat idea. Land owners who needed idleland planted would provide the trees as would local governments for similarapplications. The economic benefit isdecades away but it is clearly real.
There is much about ourenvironment that can be fixed by simple manpower and that is best supplied byvolunteerism.
by Staff Writers
Thousands of Macedonians took a day off work on Thursday to plant three milliontrees to revive the nation's forests after fires ravaged an estimated 35,000hectares (86,000 acres) of greenery.
"There is no better feeling than when you plant a tree and aftersome time come and see it growing," Macedonian opera singer and UNESCOArtist for Peace Boris Trajanov told reporters.
Trajanov launched the initiative three years ago, gaining wide supportfrom the government, local authorities, non-governmental organisations, foreignrepresentatives and businesses.
Around 30 million trees have previously been planted on more than 8,500hectares.
"This has become a nice tradition that is not only increasing theawareness among citizens about need for protection of the environment, but ismaking Macedonia more green and more clean," the Interior Minister GordanaJankuloska said as she planted a tree near the capital Skopje.
Along with human rights activists and artists, many citizens took theopportunity of a day off work as volunteers to plant the trees.
Wildfires oftendestroy thousands of hectares of forest in the Balkans country, mostly causedby human error, but also due to extremely high temperatures, especially inJuly.
In 2006 and 2007 at least 35,000 hectares of forests are estimated tohave been burned, causing damage worth up to 30 million euros (37.8 milliondollars).
Experts said that restoring the damaged ecosystem couldtake up to 50 years.
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