Trees Company

Its finally here, the first, I hope, of many environmentally themed events we can do to hopefully make things a bit better! You didn't think this was just going to be about reading my strange antics did you?

On Sunday 23rd November a group of people are going to be planting trees in the Forêt de Soignes here in Brussels.

The plan is to try and plant as many as 1500 new trees in the forest so let me know if you are interested and I will sign you up.

Thinking about this, I can see mostly positive things, we are helping the forest, the planet and all that stuff.

The downside is that it is early Sunday morning, likely to be cold and muddy, but that shouldn't put you off!

Details about the event are below:
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What is the event?
The organisation, Natuurgroepering Zoniënwoud vzw, takes care of the Forêt de Soignes (Sonian Forest) and provides guide services to those wishing to learn more or contribute to the growth of the forest. The Forêt de Soignes is the largest wooded area in Flanders and Brabant. This forest conveys an image full of impressive trees but regeneration is absolutely necessary as most of these trees are very old. This is where we can help.

EFQM would like to organise a casual and fun event to bring together a group of people for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning to plant trees in the forest. The guide service will work with us to teach us how to plant trees. By the end of a few short hours, we hope to contribute 1500 trees to the Forest. (Yes, this is possible!)

EFQM will also make a financial contribution to the Natuurgroepering Zoniënwoud (http://www.ngz.be/english/) for their guide service.

Because this is a weekend, we can make this a fun event where we can all meet – but also, we can include our family – partners and children of any age. We would also like to extend this event to those friends of EFQM – those who have worked with us in the past. Also – we plan to mention this to members who are nearby in the hope that they can join us. Our goal is to bring together at least 45 people from EFQM for this day. If you can think of anyone we should invite, please let us know.

Details of the Day
The Forest service will provide a main guide, Dirk Raes, and two others to help us throughout the morning. Their preparation includes gathering the trees to be planted, clearing the area and digging the holes – all completed before we arrive.

We will meet at 9:30 a.m. at a parking area reserved for EFQM where we can begin with fruit juice and pastries. Dirk will introduce himself to us and guide us toward the clearing. We will begin with an ‘inauguration’ of the space and then we will plant trees. Children can participate too and are encouraged at any age (and they get to put their name on a label that will be hung on ‘their’ tree). The space will then be marked with an EFQM sign that will last about 5 years in the space. Each participant will receive a certificate.

All in all, the day begins about 9:30am and will end about 1pm – so just a few short hours to contribute to the forest.

In the case of extreme weather conditions, the event will be cancelled. You will need to wear boots and gloves.
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So let me know if you fancy coming and I will sign you up! Hope to see you there!!!

I shall spend the rest of the week thinking about treemendous puns, hopefully this will branch out and we can do even more. So please, get involved and don't just leaf it to me!

To sign up, leave your details on the comments page or e-mail me at toby_godman@yahoo.co.uk