National Trust plants trees

The first of what the National Trust hopes to be thousands of trees planted around St. Vincent and the Grenadines was planted on the grounds of the Andrew Carnegie building this week.

On Wednesday afternoon, Chairman of the Trust Louise Mitchell Joseph, assisted by Finland Ambassador Mikko Phyala and Senior Forestry Supervisor Fitzgerald Providence, also a trustee, planted a two-year-old pink pouie tree, signaling the beginning of a national tree planting campaign.

Mitchell Joseph said that the campaign will take the Trust throughout the length and breadth of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, holding community outreach consultations and emphasizing the importance of the environment with the symbolic planting of a tree.

“We will be planting a variety of trees. Depending on where we are, we have to plant a tree that fits that environment.”

“Wherever we plant a tree, we are first going to find custodians to take care of those trees so that they would last longer than all of us.”

Mitchell Joseph indicated that campaign will head to the Grenadine island of Union Island and work its way up to mainland.

Mitchell Joseph said that the Trust hopes that communities will carry on the tree planting exercise so that they (the Trust) can embark on other campaigns in the future.

“There are lots of different areas we are going to be focusing on – maybe next year it will be the preservation of turtles or birds or beaches.”

“In fact, there are so many things that we try to do, so it is hard to know where to put your focus.”

The Trust will be working closely with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in determining the types of trees to be planted in the area.{{more}}

According to Mitchell Joseph, the pink pouie is not the only tree to be planted in the yard of the historic Carnegie yard. She said that plans are in place to landscape the entire area.

“We are planning to restore these entire grounds and we don’t have funding for it, so we are doing it bit by bit, and hopefully when persons see us caring for these grounds they will be inspired to donate so that we can do a wonderful restoration because our aim is to create a beautiful green space in the heart of Kingstown.”