FOREST KEEPERS CONSERVING THE TREES

Hokitika Guardian, 17 February 1930, Page 3

FOREST KEEPERS

CONSERVING THE TREES

Trees for soil conservation; trees for flood control; trees.for the tempering of weather; trees for beauty, for shade, for industry; and trees fostered for their calming influence on the affairs of men t This is the burden of the plea made by Mr Richard St. Barbe Baker,- of London, founder ofthe ‘-Bleniof: the Trees.”; Iflie. “Men, of the! .Trees,’.’ ' says the Cllfristian Bf ibncp.McAiitoi', tvhb Pounds ed by Mr Baker ip. the; summer' of* 1922, when, as assistant conservator of forests for- the British Government in Kenya.;. Colony, liis work brought hiimi,n contact with an African- tribe wliieh mpved • from district "to'• district burning forests to make temporary -'clearings. To change these forest, destroyers into .-forest eonservers lie .organised, the, -„ ! ‘\Va,tu Wa Miti,” or, “Men of the Trees,”, taught them to plant trees, and instructed them, in the first precepts of the Boy Scout movement. To-day; he reports, these farmer forest, vandals are vieing with one another in rehabilitating the forests and doing “one good deed each day.” From this romantic beginning the society, lias spread until it is generally known, throughout the world, and; -wherever it is found—in Africa, England, or Palestine—the object is always the .develop “tree sense” in overy citizen and to encourage.all tq. plant, protect, and . love their liatiye growth.