“Seeds of Hope, Trees for Tomorrow”: Season II (December 2009 – March 2010)

Despite cold weather and winter in general taking its sweet time to reach Lebanon, stuck like ice in most of Western Europe, our planting season got off on a late start, and the weather was partly responsible. One of the main difficulties we face when tree planting is the weather. Rainy and muddy conditions hamper this activity tremendously, but more importantly, the chances of survival of seedlings drops when planting in extremely wet conditions. It is, once again, becoming clearer to us that the most ideal period to plant trees in Lebanon is in the month of November leading into the beginning of December, generally before the rains begin (from Dec-Mar).

There were a number of obstacles that delayed us from planting early this season which began with the prolonged holdup in contacting the municipalities. Our strategy this year was to have an official call to the municipalities announcing our program through the Ministry of Interiors and Municipalities. We are indebted to Minister Baroud for his help in circulating our request to local authorities to participate in our tree planting campaign. Although we received phone calls and responses from over 40 municipalities, our field coordinator Khaled Slim needed more time to organize meetings and give presentation on our program.

Mr. Slim spent many hours organizing meetings with the mayors and/or municipal representatives with hopes set on consolidating municipalities in clusters in order to save time and resources. Hence, one could imagine the effort involved in traveling to these villages, many that are in remote parts of the country, to give a 20 minute presentation that often resulted in a series of question and dialogue. In essence, the meetings generally lasted upwards to an hour. Yet despite this, the presentations given were elemental in the building of interest and awareness about our campaign while disseminating vital information regarding biodiversity, climate change, and tree planting with our potential planting partners. However, the issue of planting 1 year old seedlings has reemerged again, and it is clear that our partners want larger trees (>2 years old).

It is quite clear to us after our experience last year and following the presentations delivered by Mr. Slim that our municipal partners want bigger trees. Many of them agreed to plant them next year, which effectively makes more sense. For instance, most rural reforestation projects utilize young trees, or rather seedlings, which may even be less than a year old. They are planted by the thousands and their fate lies in the hands of nature, not of man. Therefore, the planting season is generally short and just before the rains. The young trees in these kinds of large-scale excursions are not irrigated thus the average survival rate is somewhere in the range of 20 – 50%. So for every 1,000 trees planted, at best, less than half will make it alive. But do we need such small trees when we are planting in public spaces near village residences?

Community tree planting within villages is a completely different scheme altogether. In the majority of the municipalities we have been working in, there are generally between 100 – 300 trees planted on average within each village, whether they are planted along roadsides, within a public garden, or in landscaped beds around municipal or public buildings. Moreover, they are expected to be cared for by the municipality as part of our partnership agreement (non-binding/non-contractual) and/or by local members of the community. The survival rates of these trees, on the contrary, are expected to be above 80% in ideal circumstances (e.g. watering and general care).

In addition to the delays in reaching agreements with our planting partners, we began to approach the holiday season, or in other words, the busiest time of year. Furthermore, AUB volunteers are and have been the core laborers of our program, thanks to the recently established Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service (CCECS) that has been instrumental in mobilizing AUB students to take part in our tree planting program. However, with mid-terms taking place at the end of November and into December, their numbers were not sufficient in organizing planting excursions during that period. All of these factors, including rainy weekends (which are the only times volunteers can plant), were all responsible for our delays in planting.

We do, however, have the added advantage of having a longer window of period for tree planting. Again, this is completely dependent on the willingness and determination of the municipalities to keep their end of the bargain in watering and caring for the trees, especially during the first summer following the planting. It only takes a little effort to water 2-3 times a month, and although this sounds feasible and easy, it nevertheless requires determination, accountability and responsibility on part of the municipalities to make it happen. Our experience last season and the general outcome of the survival of trees were not as pleasant as we had hoped, and we can only do a better job this year by follow-up visits and monitoring.

This season we are counting on more active participation from the municipalities, especially given that they are to pick up the trees from our nursery at AREC rather than us delivering it to them. Also, they must have certain provisions set for watering, including the methods employed (manual or automatic drip-system irrigation). The most promising village that demonstrated the most ideal example of community tree planting and follow-up care was in Ain Zebdé in the Beqaa. Members of the community went as far as installing a drip-system irrigation unit that they raised money for that resulted in a near 100% survival rate for the 300 trees they planted in 2008-2009. In fact, AUB volunteers helped to plant another 200 plus native trees in Ain Zebdé just after Christmas as the first planting excursion for this season (2009-2010).

Despite the late start this season, we have had five successful planting excursions as we gear up for more in these next few weeks. The villages we have planted in so far include Ain Zebdé (Dec 26th), Qana (Jan 6th), Douris near Baalbek (Jan 9th), Souk al Gharb (Jan 10th), and Boire (Jan 16th), Ras al Metn (Jan 30th), Houmine al Faouqa (Jan 31st), Trablous (Feb 6th & 7th), Aajaltoun (Feb 8th), Kawkaba (Feb 10th), Sultan Yaaqoub (Feb 11th), and finally Hiyata & Chahtoule (Feb 12th). The last 2 villages, located near Keserwen, was our first collaborative ‘planting buddy’ project with International College Middle School students. AUB’s Red Cross members teamed up with IC’s Environmental Club students who helped to raise over $2,500 for ‘Seeds of Hope,
Trees for Tomorrow’ last fall. It was a memorable experience for everyone and one we will likely do again.

Altogether, our volunteers and local residents helped to plant over 2,000 trees so far. There are 6 planting excursions left this season; Hammana, Kfar Seer, Bebdine, Jwar al Hawz, Douma & Ehden, and Hwaysh. Our partner municipalities are receiving trees until the end of February for planting in open public spaces bringing us closer to our goal of 10,000 trees for the 2009/2010 planting season. Good luck everyone, and thanks for your support in preserving Lebanon’s biodiversity and natural heritage!