Last update - 01:56 13/03/2007
Using orchids to grow a community's pride in its backyard
Three years ago, not long after the failed battle to prevent a road paving in the Hanita Forest, a Jewish National Fund (JNF) guide pointed out orchids growing along the road route to Clil Adar, the JNF Forest and Community Coordinator for the Western Galilee. "That frustrated me," Adar says. "Had I known during the battle that orchids bloom in this area, I would have enlisted them in the struggle to influence public opinion. Perhaps we would have saved the land."
Adar remembers telling himself, "How little I know the forest that's my home. In my house, I know where the armchair, cabinet, and drawers are, but even at home I don't know what's in every drawer. Things always disappear in there."
On Thursday, 110 volunteers arrived to assist Adar in "opening every door and every drawer" in the Hanita Forest. The volunteers came from all parts of the country to survey the orchids and other rare species in the forest. That this would not reveal any sensational results was obvious even before the survey was complete. "That was also not the goal," Adar explains. He says the goal was to create a tool that would endear the forest to the surrounding community, with the town of Shlomi at its center.
In practice, the survey conducted by botanists, researchers, students, and nature lovers will create a tool with which JNF employees can plan and manage the forest in the future. When analysis of the results is complete, it will be known, for example, where orchid concentrations are located.
"Suddenly we know what is happening in the Hanita Forest," Adar says. "We also now know that orchids bloom under the pine canopy despite years in which everyone defamed the pines, claiming that nothing bloomed in their vicinity. I am happy to report, thanks to the survey, that there is plenty to see, many lovely areas, and rare orchids enhance the pine forest."
After the data is processed, the next step will be to connect the community to the forest. Adar hopes, "School children and adolescents will become attached to the forest and participate in activities involving the preparation of hiking trails. I believe that involvement, local pride and concern will develop here. This will mainly surround the orchid, which we now know more about."
The survey will also shed light on how to better preserve what already exists. For example, when trees are felled to thin out the forest, workers will have knowledge of areas where orchids and other flowers may be affected. Development activities, like paving roads, constructing neighborhoods and creating dirt paths, must now take survey results into consideration.
Adar is certain that the orchid's presence will assist him in future endeavors at the site. "That flower has something that 'does it' for people. There are people who are nuts about orchids and would go anywhere in the world to see them. The orchid is majestic, magical, and many orchids are also 'deceptive': They imitate female bees in order to attract males. Orchids are also rare and do not readily appear in meadows. You have to look for them."
Despite enormous public enthusiasm, Adar already knows that hiking paths will skirt some concentrations of the flower. "To my sorrow," he laments, "many flowers are exposed to damage by picking and crushing and I am considering whether or not to open sites to the general public or leave some sites available for an isolated few. I believe that we will not pave paths that lead to some sites."