Four hundred tree seedlings, 160 work-hours, 120 eager young women and several seasoned foresters. That's what it took to pull off a tree regeneration project at a Young Women camp on June 21.
Camp MIA Shalom is nestled in a forest at the 9,000-foot level in central Utah. The camp, which began in 1969, serves 37 stakes of young women from Provo and Orem, Utah, each summer.
Service missionaries Elder Lee Foster and Elder Keith Zobell are professional foresters who travel the country managing timber sales for the Church. The planting was a first-of-its-kind service project at Camp Shalom, where young women planted trees on a one-acre plot on a bare mountainside.
Elder Zobell and other foresters came to Shalom in 1990 and saw potential for a logging sale of some trees in the area. None were actually logged before a spruce bark beetle infestation hit the forests, devastating thousands of trees.
"It hits blue spruce and Engelmann spruce," Elder Zobell explained. "It doesn't touch the firs. There were just millions of those bugs."
Although the beetles zero in on spruce, the decision was made to re-plant several species, including two kinds of spruce and Douglas fir.
"We're planting Engelmann spruce here because we don't have [beetles] here anymore. They ate themselves out of house and home," Elder Zobell said.
Bryan Welton, group manager for forestry services for the Church, helped plan and oversee the project to determine if more trees will be planted next year.
He will return in the fall to check the survival rate of the trees. Some trees were marked with blue tags – those were hand watered the day of the planting and will be watered once a week by young women at camp. Brother Welton will check which species survive as well as trees that were hand watered versus those that just got rainwater.
"You don't normally 'dry plant' trees," he said, explaining the trees were planted in dry holes. "We normally plant in the spring when it's wet."
The idea for the project germinated a year ago when Elder Zobell started working with the Camp Shalom committee to regenerate the devastated area. He contracted with a local nursery to purchase seedlings that would grow at a 9,000-foot elevation. The Church purchased the seedlings at 60 cents each. All that was needed was the man-power, or girl-power in this case, to do the job.
Hiking up the hillside with gloves, water bottles, hats and buckets, the young women came over a four-hour span. Listening to Elder Zobell they heard a little of the history of Camp Shalom, the story of the invasion of the beetles and why they were planting seedlings on the hillside.
"You are part of a historical event today," he told them. "We're planting 400 trees this year. Next year, depending on the survival rate, we could plant 2,000 to 3,000 more all across this hillside. Mother Nature will put a seed here or there but we are helping Mother Nature."
Young women worked in teams to "scalp" the vegetation away, making room for the seedlings' tiny roots to take hold without competition from other plants. They jumped on shovels, gently placed trees in holes, built small dams to contain water, placed deer-proof fences around seedlings and hauled water.
Danny Neil, 16, of the Orem 4th Ward, Orem Utah Stake, spoke of her personal impact on the tree project.
"I know there is a lot of vegetation destroyed by roads, buildings and houses. It's important to keep vegetation alive," she said. "It's important to wildlife that live here. It's also important for us — what we learn and experience here inspires me. It makes me feel like I did something important. The girls in the future will get to see these beautiful trees."
Danny expressed a desire to be a future camp leader and return with her young women some day. She reflected on natural gifts.
"[The Lord] gave us a lot of beautiful things to experience and look at, like this forest — it's definitely one of His greatest creations," she said.
Kalli Maestas of the Eastbay 1st Ward, Provo Utah South Stake, said, "I just feel we are slowly destroying the earth so I'm glad to be a part of something to improve it," Kalli said.
Mary McNamara, a Beehive from the Provo South Stake, added: "Doing service makes me feel like I have a purpose in life," she said. "It helps me feel closer to my Lord."
