NRC 225 1st Edition Lecture 4 Outline of Last Lecture I Forests People Pigs and Plastic in Portugal and Spain a Plastic Corks II Grandma Moses III Dave Bowman Outline of Current Lecture I The Man Who Planted Trees Current Lecture Where is the setting for the story What is the time period The story is set in a deserted town initially in the valley where the Alps extend to the Provence The area was surrounded by the river Durance in the south Drome in the north and the plains of Comtat Venaissin in the west The time period is the early 1900 s Describe the man who planted trees in detail His name was ElzeardBouffier He barely spoke and herded about thirty sheep He lived alone in a house built of stone and he kept his home very clean He kept up with his appearances making sure every button was sewn on correctly and every hole in his clothes were sewn up tightly He clearly was poor because of the condition of his clothes but he doesn t seem to let that bother him He offered the man soup a place to spend two nights and water but never took anything from him not even his tobacco The man collects acorns and organizes them on the table and wouldn t accept any help He plants these throughout the day each day claiming to have planted hundreds of thousands of them He is independent and lives a quiet and peaceful life despite the hardships of the town he lives in He had lost his wife and son and decided to go live in the woods peacefully He began planting trees when he realized there was a massive lack of trees What is the character and condition of the landscape at the beginning of the story These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute The land is deserted and barren The houses were in ruins the chapel had fallen and the spring that appeared to be there dried up Who are the residents of the region and how to they earn their livelihood What were they like It was clear that the former people of the village were charcoal burners The village had a lot of hatred and competition and thus suicide and homicide Everything in the town appeared to be a rivalry No one seemed to rest and wives were unhappy There was no mention of children showing again the instability and lack of commitment to this village Who owned the land where the trees were planted The man didn t know who owned the land where he planted the trees He thought it was common land or it belonged to people who didn t care for it He didn t care who it belonged to Assuming 100 trees per day six days per week in round figures how many trees were planted during the entire time period The story begins in 1913 based on the fact that the man joined the war of 1914 and ends in 1947 meaning the time period was 34 years If he planted 100 trees per day 6 days a week that would be a total of 1 060 800 trees What changes took place in the landscape and the community residents after several decades of tree planting had been completed the end of story analog to questions 3 and 4 The trees had grown taller than the men and the narrator described the seen now as a forest There was water flowing in the spring that was once dry Vegetation started growing such as willows reeds meadows gardens and flowers People started to populate the village again as well as wild animals Are the changes in the land ecosystem plausible from a scientific point of view Specifically are the changes water storage water flow and biological diversity what you would expect Why or why not I believe the changes in the land are plausible from a scientific point of view If the only reason the land was barren was due to excessive charcoal burning then the trees should be able to regrow there However I think the stream would need a lot longer to recover It also makes sense that the animals would return once there was a source of water What was the reaction of the Forest Service officials that toured the area What did they decide to do in an administrative and political sense How did the forester assigned to the project interact with the man who planted trees A Forest Service official visited him one day and told him to not burn fires outdoors so as not to harm the trees A couple of years later several government officials came and decided the land would be under the protection of the state and that no one was allowed to burn charcoal The forester didn t really interact with the man who planted trees expect when he was leaving he told the man who planted trees that he was the expert claiming that he was the wisest man in the world and had found happiness What are the key lessons personal and professional of this parable for us 1 The moral of the story is to stress the importance of trees and planting trees It also takes a symbolic look at nature because when the town was unappreciative of nature the people were full of hate and conversely when the trees had been planted and nature was literally pouring into the town the people were happy The book also stresses the importance and positive power a single man can have on the world 1 Parable a simple story told to illustrate a moral truth a short simple story usually an occurrence of a familiar kind from which a moral or religious lesson may be drawn