Autumn is the busy season for the Million Tree Project (MTP). MTP conducts annual sample investigation for constantly tracking the forestry conditions. Over 8000 sampled trees on 290 plots need to be measured this year and it’s our first time to involve volunteers to help with the investigation. The volunteers are undergraduates and graduates from Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai University of International Business and Economics. Working together with local farmers, 1140 trees on 34 plots had been measured during their five- day volunteer service. Let’s hear how they felt about working with MTP.
每年的秋季都是百万植树计划忙碌的季节，为持续追踪树木生长情况，每年在林木的生长季结束之后，项目组都要对林地进行全面的抽样调查。今年秋季项目组将要完成290多个样点，8000多棵树的生长指标测量， 我们也首次招募了志愿者协助我们的工作。今年的志愿者分别来自中国科学院生态环境研究中心及上海对外经贸大学。五天的志愿活动，他们与当地人一起完成了34个样点，1140棵树的测量工作。让我们一起来听听志愿者的感受。
Through the 5-day trip of forestry investigation, as volunteers of the Million Tree Project (MTP), we got not only professional skills of forestry index measurement, but also skills of striding across fields of corn, sunflowers and soybeans; besides Inner Mongolian characteristic roasted mutton leg, we were warmly treated with steamed sweet potato and stir-fried sunflower seeds by local people. It was really an enjoyable and fruitful experience.
5天的百万植树计划林地调查志愿者之行，我们不仅掌握到测量树木生长指标技能，还体验到穿越玉米地、向日葵地、黄豆地的“技能”；不但品尝到内蒙特色烤羊腿，还被当地大哥大姐热情招呼蒸红薯、炒瓜子，实是难得的有趣体验。
The most exciting moment came undoubtedly when ‘Brother Kai’ was remotely controlling the drone to shoot the forestry lands of MTP. With a bird’s-eye view, the trees were seen in green and yellow and orderly in rows. The once desert had turned into lush forests, the spectacular sizes of which were impressing and made me feel proud as a member of MTP.
最令人兴奋的无疑是看着凯哥操纵无人机对林地进行航拍了，从高空鸟瞰，根与芽种植的人工林排列齐整，黄绿相间，曾经的荒漠，而今树木亭亭如盖矣，俨然已成长为一片片小森林，规模之壮观令人感慨，也让参与到百万植树计划中的我生出满满的自豪感。
There were frustrating moments as well. We observed low maintenance rates and widespread physical injury of trees in some sampled lands caused by environmental conditions and overgrazing and overcutting. This phenomenon made us contemplate that more effort should be made not only on the cultivation of trees but also raising public environmental awareness.
也有让人意兴颓然的时候，在某些样地调查中我们发现树木的成活率很低，机械损伤很多，这不仅源于环境条件，也是当地放牧和砍伐的结果，让我们深思，还需要进一步努力，在种树护树上，也在环境意识的培养上。
Forests were not formed in a day. Staff of MTP had put painstaking effort on each forestry land. A sense of mission welled up in me under their influence. As beneficiaries of environmental resources, we ought to respect and repay the nature.
Having suffered so much from smog in cities, why not come to plant trees to wipe out the smog and breathe fresh air?
树木成林并非旦夕，每一片树林都被灌注了众多工作人员的多年心血。在对他们产生敬意的同时，我自己也多了一分使命感，作为环境资源的受惠者，我们也应当回馈自然。
作为人体吸尘器吸够了城市的雾霾，也来植树造林，呼吸新鲜空气的同时一起扫除雾霾吧~
MTP needs more volunteers to make the project more sustainable and influential. If you want to get involved, please check here for detail information: http://www.mtpchina.org/get-involved#3.
为争做国内最可持续的公益植树项目，百万植树计划号召更多人的加入，有意成为项目志愿者，可在这里了解详情：http://www.mtpchina.org/get-involved#3.