GLEANER•
Southern Trelawny tree planting project in full swing
Western Bureau: The Southern Trelawny Environmental Agency (STEA) says it has already planted 9,700 of the 40,000 native trees which it is planting in Rock Spring and Albert Town, in Southern Trelawny, as part of a project funded by the Belgium based Tui Care Foundation.The initiative is part of an effort to replace the trees that were chopped down over the years for a variety of reasons in that section of the Cockpit Country, which is one the nation’s premier watersheds – an area that channels rainfall into streams and rivers.Environmentalist Hugh Dixon, the executive director of STEA, who has been one of the driving forces behind environmental preservation in the Cockpit Country, has been pleased with the progress being made to date."We intend to plant a total of 40,000 trees, 10,000 of which will be fruit trees to include mangoes, ackee, breadfruit and avocado,” said Dixon, who is also a major player in the promotion of eco-tourism. “The native trees include cedar, blue mahoe and Spanish elm."According to Dixon, the overall aim of the project is to replace trees destroyed by forest fires, trees cleared away for farming, and trees illegally cut down to provide lumber for the furniture industry
