Dear Sir,

We write to welcome you and your family to Chiang Mai on behalf of Gum Hak Doi Suthep, a small volunteer organisation which works on encouraging care for nature in Chiang Mai.

For a decade we have been collecting seeds of indigenous trees and propagating, planting and tending trees at many sites both in the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park and in the valley below.

Accompanying this letter we present a small selection of trees which would once have grown along the Ping River and on the site of the Governor’s residence, but in our observation are no longer present in the spacious gardens of the residence nor in the treeless formal garden on Rachadamnoen (sic) Rd adjacent to the residence. In doing so we invite you to have these trees planted in the garden and to enjoy watching them grow during your stay.

Included in the selection are Hopea odorata – ตะเคียน , Dipterocarpus turbinatus – ยางแดง,

Holoptelea integrifolia – ขะจาว , Toona ciliata – ยมหอม , which all grow to be big trees

and also the smaller Drypetes roxburghii – มะองนก and Cleidion spiciflorum – ดีหมี .

We hope that by planting these trees in such a prominent government site in the city this will send a signal to officers of the government and the community about the importance of preserving and restoring the diversity of the wonderful tree flora of northern Thailand.

Last year the then governor of Chiang Mai M.L. Pannida Diskul invited Gum Hak Doi Suthep to the Sala Klang to speak about these issues. We presented to him a copy of the Chiang Mai Urban Forests Declaration and notes about the care of trees, and following the meeting M.L.Pannida wrote a letter expressing support for the concepts we discussed.

We enclose with this letter, copies of the documents for your information and would be most pleased if your office would see fit to distributing them to government offices in the province. Also we would be very happy to participate in activities you might initiate to further the understanding of biodiversity.

Wishing you a long and happy stay with us here as governor of Chiang Mai,

Yours Sincerely

Prasak Thavornyutikarn & Ricky Ward