People can be more powerful than any ruler they elect. That’s because there are 7.264 billion of us when we last counted, but only 195 national governments given the odd revolution. Simple math proves we have the power to achieve positive change. A handful of German volunteers in Harz National Park are doing that by making a difference to trees.
Rangers at Harz National Park Call for German Volunteers
Hundreds of thousands of acres of forest are distressed or dying in Germany according to New York Times. Rangers there are calling for volunteers to help save a national treasure that has become part of their identity.
The forest was under threat from acid rain previously until new laws curtailed toxic emissions. However, this time the German volunteers face a new threat: rising temperatures. An exceptionally dry summer following a severe 2018 drought has weakened the trees’ defenses against bark beetles. These tiny creatures just a fifth-inch long feed on the inner layer of the bark, where vascular tissue carries nutrients to the leaves.
Half a Million Acres of German Forest Weakening and Dying
Large swathes of spruce and beech forest are no longer lush and green in Harz National Park. Instead, their leafless branches have turned a sickly brown. New York Times reported on Christmas Eve 2019 how a small group of people are planting new trees there.
This is painstaking work for several retirees, a few millennials, a local couple, and a technology specialist under the watchful eye of a park ranger. Carefully spaced holes in the ground are ready to receive seedlings. The earth must reach half way up their stems and there should be no air pockets around their roots.
Thus far they and a host of other volunteer groups have put 80,000 tree shoots in the ground. Tree scientists will monitor their growth from seedling to sapling to mature trees. This initiative will feed data to a project developing tree varieties more resistant to global warming.
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Preview Image: Death Is In the Forest
