The man who planted trees

is a fable written by Jean Giono in 1953 about a man who single-handedly re-forests a barren landscape. It is fiction but is often assumed to be fact. However there are many other individuals who have planted forests and Felix here is one of them. He is seated beside a Bronze Age hut circle looking back at the ribbon of wooded land that snakes up from his home a mile or so below. Over the last 28 years he has planted over 3000 trees on this steep narrow corridor between fields of grazing sheep.


At this high point the land is rough and exposed, barely able to support a few wizened conifers but we walked up through a rich and varied plantation of native trees  (and a few exotic ones) with a succession of different micro-environments supporting a burgeoning flora and fauna. What  would have been overgrazed pasture is now  a wilderness of natural habitats. The cuckoo called incessantly as we zigzagged upwards negotiating tussocks, brambles and low-hanging branches. Felix brought the watering can to nurture some of his most recent plantings near the top.

Felix divides his time between Pembrokeshire and India where he is involved in environmental issues relating to tribal land rights. Another man who plants trees is Jadev Payeng who for over 30 years has singlehandedly  re-forested a huge area of his native territory in Assam in order to provide habitat for wild animals that had vanished from the area. The forest has been named after him, but when I asked Felix what his woodland was called he said it was just named after the place he lives in.


There's a short article on Jadev Payeng here.


(It was a murky day so I've boosted the colour a bit.)