Readers who like to visit Huey Teng Tao with its ornamental dam 12 km north of Chiang Mai along te Irrigation Canal Rd may not have seen recent destruction of forest there.
In January an area of young forest which had been planted over a period of 4 years by various school groups was bulldozed in order to make a car park for a 3 day music event.
As a result many trees died but a good number have resprouted and are now being swamped with weed growth.
Students from CMU Engineering faculty have been asked to come and help hand weed the small Mimosa and other American weeds and all comers are welcome. Please bring gardening gloves, drinking water and a sickle if possible.
Enquiries : Ricky 0849859668
Oh Dear – Sorry to disappoint. The promised students from CMU – Chiang Mai University, reputedly one of the best in the country, did not appear and nor did the Ajarns from CMU who first announced that their students would be helping community work that day, nor did they explain or apologize.
By the way; American weeds are a big problem far way from their original homes in tropical America and the story is similar in Australia where from the northern tropics to the southern snowy Australian Alps weeds from Mexico to Argentina are major environmental challenges.
These problems from Globalisation, much promoted by the dominant ideology of today, have their origins stretching over three centuries and the importation from South America of fodder to Australia during a 19th century drought.