Forest policy has gradually turned its focus to conservation, the Taiwan Forestry Bureau this year completely prohibited the cutting of natural forest, and great numbers of trees have been planted on the mountain slopes of grasslands where there is an extreme lack of vegetation. But most of the trees planted have been such species as the cryptomeria or the red pine, trees that grow fast and tall-- like chickens being raised for slaughter--only to be quickly turned into paper, furniture or other wood products. Among these, the tree planted in greatest numbers has been the cryptomeria, a foreign species that has little added value and provides little check against erosion. And planting large areas with only one tree allows vermin and disease to thrive all year round.

Returning the forest to its original state--as a mixed forest of native trees--has become the Forestry Bureau's focus in this new era.

The Stout Camphor as Test Case: According to a 1935 description, the drainage area of the Chingshui River seemed to be "the home base for stout camphors on the east coast." The impressive stretch of stout camphors was like "a sea of trees" and its stock was one of the highest on the east coast. Its branches were as thick as the trunks of most trees, and its trunks were four or five meters in diameter, requiring several people with outstretched arms to encircle one. Because the stout camphor provides very good material for carving and furniture, it became a rare plant after it was felled illegally in great numbers.

In order to revive the tree, the Chingshui tract of stout camphors became a source of saplings for the Taiwan Forest Research Institute. In 1988, with a successful test of planting and cultivating stout camphor saplings, the Forestry Bureau set up stout camphor nursery gardens and fruit picking nursery gardens in the Nanan Valley of the Lele River of Yuli district, paving the way for the Stout Camphor to regain its magnificent presence around the Chingshui River.

"Stout camphors do not sprout easily, but after they do, they can grow four meters tall in a year," says Wu Chen-jung, supervisor of the technical room of the Yuli Work Station, with a great sense of accomplishment. "With an average of a centimeter a day, it's almost as if the naked eye can see it grow."

Some of the saplings produced at the Nanan nursery gardens have been transplanted at the forest compartment of the Chingshui River. In order to strengthen the physical make-up of the forest, last year the Forestry Bureau and the Forest Research Institute unveiled an experimentation plan for an unprecedented undertaking: creating a mixed forest with 10 kinds of native trees--including the stout camphor, Taiwan zelkova, Formosan michelia and Chinese pistache. "We take the attitude of planting trees to atone for our past sins," says Wu Chen-jung.

Atoning for Sins: But turning a nearly lifeless, seemingly god-forsaken place--the site of numerous disasters--into a "green sea" of largely native trees is "not something that can be done in 30 or 50 years," says botanist Huang Juihsiang. And it is still not known whether stout camphor that were coddled with care in greenhouses can adapt to conditions in the wild.

Planting trees is a century-long big plan, but one can't "talk about cultivation without talking about harvest," says Sung Chien-min, a forest creating supervisor who is currently leading the nearly 20 personnel in improving the soil and caring for the saplings. "What's the use of toiling to plant trees here while they're still mining across the way in the Chingshui River Farm?" For this purpose, the Forestry Administration has sent a letter to the Taiwan Garrison Command, in the hope of gaining authority over the Chingshui Farm so that reforestation can begin there.

Besides a lack of overall authority, there are many other challenges the bureau faces in the largescale planting of trees. The staff that goes to the mountain to plant trees lack experience and lack even more energy and tools. Because of a lack of funding, people are retiring and equipment is breaking down and neither are being replaced. The average age of Taiwan Forestry Bureau personnel is 55. What's more, because of cost considerations, Yuli was scaled back from a district forest office to a work station, making staffing and funding problems even more serious.

"When the trees were being cut down, it was a district forest office, but when we're planting trees, it becomes a work station--with reduced authority, money and personnel," says Lien Hung-te, a local reporter who was born and bred in Yuli. "How can it be called a reforestation with overall planning." The government still needs to revise their policies, laments an ecologist. The Council of Agriculture, the central government agency in charge of water and land preservation, gets allotted an estimated NT$ 3 billion a year for antiflooding measures while the Forestry Bureau is hard pressed for cash to support the planting of trees, whose roots prevent erosion. "They've got the cart before the horse."

To find peace for the body and spirit, first put in order the natural environment. Seeds have been planted in atonement for making the land poor and barren. How long will it take to see the results of this work blossom?

[Picture Caption]

Wu Chen-jung, the technical supervisor of the Forestry Bureau's work station at Yuli, says, "We're planting trees in the spirit of atoning for our sins." (photo by Diago Chiu)

All of the Forestry Bureau's workers hope that these stout camphors, so healthy in the nursery, can also thrive in the wild. (photo by Diago Chiu)