new project aims to document and conserve ancient trees

Leafing through history

By Eli Ashkenazi, haaretz.com

Amikam Riklin and Suhail Zidan duck into Ahmad Jaburna's tent to get out of the freezing wind blowing through the Beit Netofa Valley in northern Israel.

The preliminary meeting with Jaburna, also known as Abu Salah, is essential before the two workers from the Jewish National Fund (JNF) head to the great Atlantic pistachio tree in the middle of the valley.

Riklin is head of the supervision branch at the JNF, and Zidan is one of its best forestry workers. Abu Salah, formerly the mayor of Arabeh and now a shepherd and author, discusses geology and agriculture before finally getting around to the tree.

"It is believed that 2,500 years ago the whole northern part of the valley was forested," he says. "Apparently, that tree stood on the road connecting the west and the sea to the east - Tiberias and Damascus. People would sit in its shade."

"How do you explain how it survived?" Zidan asks.

"The tree protected the people, they did not protect it," says Abu Salah.

The visit in Abu Salah's tent is part of a project to document and conserve ancient trees. "The essence of the project," Zidan says, "is to study the history of the trees, to protect them, for the benefit of science."

"This is a forestation study that will go on for dozens of years," Riklin adds. "We aren't working just for ourselves. If we manage to root a Kermes oak no bigger than a small bush, in another 200 or 300 years people will enjoy it."

A network of forest rangers and supervisors all over Israel is now in the process of reporting on ancient trees in their areas. JNF ecologist Yoram Goldring is also taking part in the project. So far, 150 trees have been mapped, some 40 percent of which were previously unknown to the professionals.

"You get a phone call from somebody who tells you about a special tree," Riklin says, mentioning a Druze man from the Galilee village of Ein el Asad who told him recently about a huge eucalyptus tree in the village.

"It is no shame to say we have trees we didn't know about before," says Yoram Weinberger, head of JNF's central Galilee and Golan regions, adding that many trees were found by traveling around and hearing rumors. "The unique nature of a tree or its size aren't the only things that impress us," Weinberger adds. "We're also interested in the human connection, in stories about it."

The tree people describe the feeling of "elation" when they see an ancient tree for the first time. The lentisk (or mastic) tree they found southeast of Maghar seems to excite them more than any other. Usually the lentisk is no more than a bush, and here it is a gigantic tree.

"You stand in front of it and say 'Master of the universe, what is this that you leave in our care, and why didn't we do anything about it until now?' " Zidan says. He adds that now they need to "learn the language of the tree. We want to talk to the tree and find out what it has been through up until now. It stood in the sun, the wind, and the rain; people and history passed beneath it."

The two hope the survey will expand to Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. "For the trees, this is one geographic unit; they don't know borders."

After another cup of coffee, they set out from Abu Salah's tent. A five-minute drive later, they see the tree in the middle of a field, surrounded by stones the farmers had removed from their plots over the years. Zidan jumps out with a measuring tape - the tree measures 3.3 meters around, with a 500-meter crown. Riklin and Abu Salah take it in admiringly, understanding something Zidan had said earlier about context. "A lone tree has a more interesting story than one in the forest."

Zidan tells Riklin no conservation work is necessary, except for stopping up a few holes.

For the Mount Tabor oak they had seen two hours earlier at the grave of Rabbi Khalafta, mentioned by travelers 500 years ago, it is a different story.

"A whole part of that tree is dead and will have to be pruned," Weinberger says. While doing so, they will be able to check its age. The tree is also afflicted with rot and will have to be shored up. "It will be an orthopedic process" that may cost as much as NIS 40,000, he says. "But the tree is important enough for us to care for it."