In November we suggested as a way to help the people of the flooded Chaophraya plain whose gardens had died, people in the north could grow trees and send south to plant.

Staff of the Forest Department have warmed to this idea and arrangements have been made for the Nakhorn Sawan Forest Nursery – คุณ สุจิตรา หัวหน้าสวนรุกขชาตินครสวรรค์ โทร.089-4370059 – to receive plants donated by Chiang Mai forest nurseries.

In Nakhorn Sawan the trees will be transferred to large potting bags to grow to a size where the survival after planting should be high. See City Now for the latest on this story.

The central plain of Siam once was dominated by great trees of the Dipterocarpaceae family, particularly Dipterocarpus alatus (Yang Na) and Hopea odorata  (Takien) both of which have this year been grown in large numbers in Chiang Mai.  For example the Heuy Keow Nursery & Arboretum have over 2000 Yang Na and 1000 Takien, Khun Nikom of the Chang Peuk Hotel has around 10,000 Yang Na grown from seed collected at Wat Chedi Luang and the Watershed Unit Nursery at Sop Poeng , Mae Daeng has 5000 Takien seedlings.

If we estimate 30,000 seedlings were sent for planting and just to suppose they were planted in the fashion of the avenue on the ChiangMai-Lamphun road the number would be sufficient to line only 225 km of road. Considering there are many thousands of kilometres of highways, minor roads streams and canals on the plain finding suitable places for planting should not be difficult.

The present problem we face is how to transport the trees from Chiang Mai.

People returning towards Bangkok after the New Year holidays with space in their pick-up trucks are being asked to volunteer to take a load of seedlings to Nakhorn Sawan.

Please contact Khun Jumpot of the Nurseries Section on 08-1910-2130 , or Ricky 08-4985-9668 to speak in English, if you are able to help, either at the time suggested or at a later date.