Letter of the Day | Land of few woods and little water

THE Editor, Sir:

Christopher Columbus, on his approach to Jamaica, is reported to have remarked that this was the fairest island he has ever seen and, as he landed, he declared it “the land of wood and water”. Then, the springs and rivers gushed and teemed with fish, and other flora and fauna flourished. If he were to see it today, he would probably ask if this was the same place he visited all those centuries ago.

Many people may have missed the news out of Ethiopia over the past few days, or may not have shown interest, but that country embarked on a massive tree-planting campaign, planting close to a record four million trees in one day, with the hope of planting over three billion trees by year end. That country suffered from a massive loss of its forest reserve over the past few years and is now trying to replace it because of the negative effect the country is experiencing as a result of its forest loss.

Brazil, too, is having a problem with the loss of its Amazon forests and in many Central American countries, the forests are going faster than their replacement. Jamaica, having similar experience with the loss of its forest, is ‘romping’ with its tree replacement. Some of the negative effects are clearly seen during the present drought, with dried-up springs and rivers, massive soil erosion when it rains, and unusually high temperatures.

The denudation of the forests in neighbouring Haiti is something we should avoid at all costs, because once-fertile topsoil has gone down to marl. The Panama Canal Zone has strict rules on protecting its forest and these rules are enforced with stringent penalties for violation. Since the canal depends on fresh water if the rain does not come, the canal will not work. Jamaica has rules, but they are weakly enforced since ‘a so Jamaica tan, nutten nah come out a it’. What if the Hermitage dries? Cuss the govament!

Not enough resources

There is little local hardwoods for building construction and not many persons of the present generation are familiar with trees such as cedar, bullet wood, Santamaria, broadleaf, mahogany and others, some long extinct in Jamaica. We now have to rely mostly on imported lumber, which, if untreated, become termite food in no time. The Caribbean pine planted by the Forestry Department is not good construction wood and is vulnerable to high winds. We need to plant quick-growing trees such as cedar, which is in high demand for furniture, using land which is not good for other areas of agriculture.

Over the years, a great many of our trees have been taken out by many factors, such as the construction industry, the railway for rail ties, agriculture, especially for yam sticks, and more recently, as fuel for the jerked meat industry, among other things. Few of these trees have been replaced, including the pimento which once flourished in northern Manchester. We must know, however, that apart from regulating the water in the soil, trees have a thousand other uses, which inspired the famous opening lines of Alfred J. Kilmer’s famous poem, “I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree”.

Trevor Samuels

tasamuels@cwjamaica.com