Our Sapling Project – Sichuan and Gansu Provinces

Since 2008 we have been planting Plum and Walnut Saplings in rural mountainous locations of Sichuan and Gansu Provinces.  Participant families receive up to 100 high yielding, specially grafted saplings, along with several years of technical training and support to see these trees mature over a period of up to 5 years.  To date in excess of 50,000 trees have been planted.  With the exception of one group of trees that were planted at altitude’s too high for good growth, results have been mostly positive.  Some  saplings planted in 2008 died through an unfortunate combination of planting too high in altitude followed by an extremely harsh winter.  Otherwise, success rates are above 85% which is above our planned expectations.

Our thanks to everyone who supported these initiatives.

(pictured: A boy looking forward to a secure and safe future education; Mr Lai providing technical training to village recipients in Sichuan Province; A villager planting a new sapling in Gansu province where 50 families took part in a pilot planting program; A village leader showing off his saplings after one year of growth. These are on target to produce their first marketable yield in 2014).