Arbor day: A new national holiday

I still remember the time that my grandparents planted trees every 5th day in April. They planted acacia tree, pine tree and white birch in mountain near the house. Planting trees granted me a great joy. Digging a ground to half feet depth, placing sapling inside, filling the hole with extracted soil and watering them. Through the procedure I learned about the existence of nature that surrounds us and how marvelous nature is. The memory of Arbor Day still stored deep in my memory palace with sense of nostalgia. 

The last Arbor Day as a national holiday in Korea was in 2005. Started in 1948, Arbor Day was originated in purpose to turn Korean mountains green again. Before this project, most of the mountains in Korea was bare mountains. Slash and burn farmers cut down trees for farming, while other use tress for firewood. Due to such artificial interruption, there was no green in mountains but only brown and red bare soils. Bare mountains were vulnerable to sudden flooding. Every summers, people lost their homes and lands due to mass landslides. Mountains were horrible in aesthetic view either.   

Bare mountain in North Korea. Unlike Korea, bare mountains still remain in North Korea

Finally, in 1948, Korean governments realized the seriousness of this problems, and this was the genesis of Arbor Day in Korea. Registering to national holiday, people started to plant saplings in mountains every year. Mountains gradually turned into green. Birds and animals returned. Thanks to this effort, majority of bare mountains were recovered.  

However, as mountains became green again, people started to question the necessity of Arbor Days. They believed that Arbor Day has no use since most of the bare mountains are recovered. Like killing a  dogs after hunting is over. Anyway in 2005, Arbor Day was excluded from national holiday. And my memories about Arbor Day stopped from that moment.

But was that a wise choice? Absolutely not. The original purposes of Arbor Day was not still completed. If I hike a mountain right behind my school, I can easily find acacia and maple trees. They are the results of 60 years Arbor Days tree-planting. The problem is, those trees are not perfectly suitable to Korea. Acacia and maples were imported from America and Canada in 1960s. Since they grow fast in harsh conditions, they were 'selected' by governments. In other words, we brought invasive species to recover environments, and it is worthless to stress out hazardous of invasive species in local environments. 

This directly become the reason why we should register Arbor Days to national holiday. Country government have responsibility to rectify their past fault. Currently, Korean temperate forests require continuous control. Native arbor species like oak and pine should planted and dead tree branches and leaves that block sunlight reaching to young saplings needed to cleared. Arbor Day can accomplish these goals. As I mentioned above, national holiday has great influences to people. Reminds how Buddha's Birthday or thanksgiving day affects people's behaviors. People tend to put significance and follow the original purposes of national holidays. In other words, national holiday leads people to 'act' something. 

Today, nobody doubts the importance of preserving forests and environments. We all know that is crucial problem which directly tangled with our lives. But, despite those significance, it is hard to reach to real actions. Arbor Days can be solutions that guide people to take actions. Bright, better future is not given but gained.   

For additional information about Arbor Day click the link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbor_Day