Establish a nursery now for endemic trees on your campus using only the seeds of mature endemic (native) trees already found in your school or vicinities.
There is almost no financial cost as the seeds are for free, you just need to spot mature healthy trees to collect the seeds from. The ideal location of your nursery in your school will depend on the species of tree you are planning to plant - some are shade lovers while others are sun lovers, natural shade can be used from other existing trees on your campus or you might want to build a small 'pergola' and later on grow your seedlings in a 'chamber' - cover them with a plastic film like the one used to cover books in your library. The necessary infrastructure in order to take care of the seedlings is already there provided you already have plants and/or flowers in your school - e.g. to water the seedlings if needed; some of the soil found on your campus might be rich enough in nutrients and have a basic ‘ph’ - if it is dark in color, and the consistency is 'granule' like and worms are doing a wonderful job already to allow the young roots to grow and breath at ease without any fertilizer needed. No matter what: DON'T USE FERTILIZERS !
The aim of this nursery is to answer recent requirements from the Department of Education which is encouraging such projects as does the UN too as they even released a resolution recently regarding the importance of planting native trees. The goals would be endless to enumerate but I will try to list the gist of what I can think of:
- Act in the frame of Sustainable Development projects locally - awareness comes first then it must be followed by proper ACTION
- Become a carbon neutral school: reforestation reduces our carbon footprint by planting native tree species
- Educate students, through their active participation – germination, for instance, is part of the Biology programs for all levels that a nursery can indeed help to illustrate
- Educate the staff and administration officers as well through the bias of presentations from local specialists/scientists (biologists, ornithologists, botanists, etc.) about the environment in your country/ state
- Discover the fauna and flora of local and natural forests together with members of a local reforestation association or NGO would be a good move towards the reconciliation with our environment wherever you are in the world - we often don’t know the first thing about the crucial role of our disappearing forests, especially our young students wasting most of their time in virtual worlds thanks to computer games and 'TV gaga' programs in order to fit in today's world for sale.
- Cooperate with your local association/ NGO for the benefit of its expertise in the field of planting seedlings of your nursery in well defined reforestation sites = educative outing to see what the primary forest looks like and thus learn about it and all that it provides us with for free.
- Help the country saving a very good source of : FOOD, WATER, SHELTER, MEDECINE -fugii are just miracles, and WORK (related to wood, e.g. the production of charcoal is a good source of income in some developing countries or with the biodiversity hosted by the forest and disappearing with it, e.g. tropical birds in tropical countries), and last but not least, take part in the only protection that nature has to offer against its own wrath: flash FLOODS, MUDSLIDES, LANDSLIDES, AVALANCHES, DROUGHTS - watershed role of forests, water POLLUTION (soil, rivers and sea alike) from fertilizers from crops which leads eventually to the loss of the inherent land and water biodiversity, and many other calamities which are bringing your country to the front page of international press so often nowadays…
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