One morning when I left the house, I saw lots of people in the streets with machetes, nets and hatchets. Employees of the municipality were cutting down the very trees which gave my community its name: La Alameda (The poplar grove).
Hundreds of trees where knocked down because, according to the authorities, they were diseased, they were a risk to the homes in the sector since they were hundreds of years old, and they were infected with termites and weevils.
But even so, it hurt me to watch them fall. It was almost like watching a massacre because the trees couldn’t defend themselves. First they cut them with electric saws, then they pushed them or pulled them with trucks or oxen. Once the trees had fallen to the ground, people with machetes cut off the branches like a lynching. Leaves everywhere, branches, woodchips, birds’ nests with eggs – it was all so sad to see. There is a saying that goes “From a fallen tree, make firewood.” And I felt sad, as if they had ripped something away from me too.
My ecological consciousness began not long ago, when Children International’s Youth Program began a campaign to plant fruit trees. Last year several children planted lemon, apple and orange trees around their homes. I know that it’s not a lot, but it’s a little breath of fresh air for nature that we’re planning on doing again this year.
I’d like to share the message that we need to take care of nature and take care of the trees that are left thanks to the many neighbors who opposed it and protested. I am part of a Youth Group that is ecologically conscientious thanks to the environmental education we have received. And because of that education, we are committed to fighting so that this destruction doesn’t happen again in our lush green Guatemala.
Photos and story by Edwin Mazate, sponsored youth and youth reporter for Children International in Chimaltenango, Rural Guatemala. To see more sponsored Guatemalan youth in ecological action, watch our video "Every Day is Earth Day".
Hundreds of trees where knocked down because, according to the authorities, they were diseased, they were a risk to the homes in the sector since they were hundreds of years old, and they were infected with termites and weevils.
But even so, it hurt me to watch them fall. It was almost like watching a massacre because the trees couldn’t defend themselves. First they cut them with electric saws, then they pushed them or pulled them with trucks or oxen. Once the trees had fallen to the ground, people with machetes cut off the branches like a lynching. Leaves everywhere, branches, woodchips, birds’ nests with eggs – it was all so sad to see. There is a saying that goes “From a fallen tree, make firewood.” And I felt sad, as if they had ripped something away from me too.
My ecological consciousness began not long ago, when Children International’s Youth Program began a campaign to plant fruit trees. Last year several children planted lemon, apple and orange trees around their homes. I know that it’s not a lot, but it’s a little breath of fresh air for nature that we’re planning on doing again this year.
I’d like to share the message that we need to take care of nature and take care of the trees that are left thanks to the many neighbors who opposed it and protested. I am part of a Youth Group that is ecologically conscientious thanks to the environmental education we have received. And because of that education, we are committed to fighting so that this destruction doesn’t happen again in our lush green Guatemala.
Photos and story by Edwin Mazate, sponsored youth and youth reporter for Children International in Chimaltenango, Rural Guatemala. To see more sponsored Guatemalan youth in ecological action, watch our video "Every Day is Earth Day".
Powered by Compendium Blogware
Comments for Goodbye Trees: A Youth Report