Planting of pines finished in success!

This year, MTP is going to try a new tree species: Pinus sylvestnis var. mongolica Litv. These pines are mainly distributed in Heilongjiang, Jiling, Liaoning, Gansu and Inner Mongolia, and are one of the best tree species for reforestation in northern China. These pines stay alive very long, usually 150-200 years old. They can stand with dry, could and windy environment. The ecological and economical outcome of these pines are pretty nice.

According to schedule, the 510 Mu (34 hectare) pine site for this year is located north of Ha Hai Go village, Liu Jia Zi town, Kulun Qi, Inner Mongolia. All the planting work should be finished before the July rain season ends. During 1 July to 4 July, 30 volunteers from Standard Chartered Bank visited Kulun Qi and took part in the pine tree planting work. Despite the hot weather, these bankers who used to sit in offices worked really hard with local farmers. Within the planting of one day and a half, this energetic team planted over 2,400 pines in total! That is a very impressive achievement. By 20 July, all the 68,000 pines within schedule have been successfully planted into the land, making the total number of trees planted in the Million Tree Project reaches over 600,000!

Below: Forestry Manange, Sun Litao, holding pine seedlings (by Megan Li, 2011)

Below: SCB volunteers helped planting the pines (by CHEN Ting, 2011)

Below: Pines newly planted (by Megan Li, 2011)