Event Summary:
The village of Miniara is located along the main highway on the way to Akkar just before Halba, the largest town in Akkar. Our relationship with the municipality of Miniara dates back to our first planting season (2008-2009) where bused out about a dozen volunteers for a planting event that took place in early December of 2008. Students from the local school who were over twenty volunteered to plant a number of carob trees along the street across from the Martyr’s public garden.
Of the ten municipalities that received seedlings in the fall of 2008, Miniara was the only village that successfully planted (most) of the seedlings it received. The municipality kindly agreed to hold some 3,000 plus seedlings that were then distributed to the rest of the villages in Akkar. Volunteers helped plant nearly 150 bay laurels, carob and pine trees along the roadside leading to the public garden. The municipality kept its promise to water and care for the seedlings and even prepared the holes for us before the planting. This resulted in one of the highest survival rates for seedlings planted in that first season (over 70%).
Just this past summer, Ibsar organized a maintenance trip with St. Mary’s Orthodox students to Miniara . The volunteers helped in weeding around the bay and carob trees, some of which were nearly 2 meters tall in their 3rd year. Michel Abboud, the municipality representative who was our contact person for the past few years, was keen on having us plant along the north-facing slopes of the public garden. It was an ideal location for having young trees planted in order to give it both an aesthetic touch while preventing erosion.
International College (IC) middle school teacher, Ms. Sawsan Kibbi, contacted me and expressed interest in having her Environmental Club participate in another tree planting trip. It could not have come at a better time since we were short on AUB volunteers for this particular trip; hence, we planned to team up with her small group of enthusiastic young tree planters for the long trip to Miniara . I recognized a number of familiar faces from our first tree planting in 2009 and even a few from my first tree planting workshop that took place at IC in December of 2008. I could only imagine how rewarding it would be for them when they return to these areas that they helped to plant to see how well the trees were doing.
There were about a dozen or so IC students to about half a dozen AUB students, so we naturally partnered ever two IC students to one AUB student and had them plant along the pathway of the site. The municipality also brought a few hired hands to help clear some of the brush and bamboo to ease the process for us. After a couple of hours of digging, seedlings were distributed and planted followed by stone-mulching and watering. Approximately 60 Judas trees (Cercis siliquastrum), 60 Syrian maples (Acer obtusifolium), and about 30 nettle trees (Celtis australis) were successfully planted. The municipality planted the rest of the seedlings that numbered around one hundred and fifty along the same path extending the circumference of the garden.