The 50th Tree Went Unnoticed

There are milestones you plan for. And then there are milestones you almost miss. Yesterday, while planting four more trees, we had quietly crossed an important one. Our 50th tree.

We didn't realise it at the time. Today, after planting another four, we counted again.

57 trees planted over the last few weeks.

Fifty-seven.

It still feels a little unreal when I think back to where this started. Just a few weeks ago, we were looking at a dry patch of the hill and wondering what we could possibly do about it. Today, there are 57 young trees finding their place on that same hillside. And then came two young visitors.

We've had people watching what we're doing for a while now. Today, two of them decided to stop watching and join us. They had been following our updates and watching us work over the past couple of months. So today they picked up the tools. They helped us dig, clean, carry and plant. But what I enjoyed most were their questions.

• Why are we digging here?
• Why this type of trench?
• Why do we need to do this?
• Why are we planting these trees?

Those questions are probably more important than the work itself. Because conservation shouldn't be something that children only read about in a textbook. They should be able to touch the soil, struggle with a rock, plant a tree and ask why we're doing what we're doing. Maybe one day, they'll bring someone else here and explain it to them.

Today's work

We enhanced two trenches and planted four more trees. And somewhere between digging, carrying soil and answering questions, we realised that the 50-tree milestone had already passed us.

Perhaps that's how it should be. The number matters. But the people who are slowly becoming part of the journey matter even more.

Today, it was five regular volunteers, two curious youngsters, 57 trees and a few more questions than we started with.

Not a bad Sunday morning.