Tree Planting in the Shirakammi Mountains (Peter Mak)

This workcamp has been a nice one. Although this is my first overseas workcamp and my first visit to Japan, thanks to the nice people of the Shirakami Nature School and the Preservation Society, I adopted to the Japanese way of living and the field work easily.
TREE planting is NOT new to me because this kind of activity is also common in my place of origin, Hong Kong. However, after completing the tree planting in Shiramaki Mountains, I have a new understanding about it. By planting trees in the nature we do not only improve the environment, we also contributed to the maintenance of a habitat critical to the living of many animals, for example, the birds that are only found in the Shirakami Mountains. This is crucial to the achievement of a balanced ecology. Besides, while the trees in the Shirakami Mountains have been cut down to make ways for other human activities in the past, what we have done could fix the damage caused and provide the future generations with a better environment.
I believe that the Shiramaki Mountains is such a wonderful natural treasure that should be introduced to the rest of the world. I am glad that I have chosen this workcamp and I would definitely recommend it to other people.