Manas Airmen, Kyrgyz neighbors partner to plant trees for Earth Day

Photo By Master Sgt. Charles Wade | Airmen from Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan, participate in planting more than 1,000 trees...... read more read more

Photo By Master Sgt. Charles Wade | Airmen from Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan, participate in planting more than 1,000 trees at a tree nursery near the base, April 25. The Airmen partnered with Kyrgyz workers from the Frunze Forest organization to help celebrate Earth Day.  see less | View Image Page

ON A WARM SPRING MORNING, AFGHANISTAN

04.25.2009

Story by Maj. Rickardo Bodden 

376th Air Expeditionary Wing

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On a warm spring morning, more than 30 Airmen from Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan, partnered with local Kyrgyz representatives to plant more than 1,000 trees to celebrate Earth Day.

"This is the first time base personnel have gone out in the community and helped improve the Kyrgyz ecology like this," said Christopher Smardz, Manas AB environmental program manager. "Today was a chance to build good relations with our neighbors and do something good for the environment."

Only two weeks earlier, members of the base's 376th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron were trying to think of what the base could do for Earth Day, celebrated worldwide since 1970 every April 22. The idea of the tree planting crystallized when Smardz and Ryan Eargle, the Manas AB real estate specialist, were meeting with Isabek Abdygaziev, director of the state-funded Frunze Forest organization.

"Manas Air Base leases land from several landowners, including Frunze Forest," said Eargle, who is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee responsible for managing base leases. "Their charter is to preserve and improve the Kyrgyz ecology by planting trees so I thought, 'why not partner together to plant trees on Earth Day?'"

The brief call for support received an enthusiastic response. The first Saturday following Earth Day, April 25, the volunteers climbed aboard a bus with water, shovels and plenty of energy and drove roughly two miles to a grassy field just off the north end of the Manas International Airport runway.

"I'm so happy with the turnout," said Lidia Shinkareva, a Kyrgyz woman who is a volunteer with the Frunze Forest. "We appreciate your support. Only three months ago this field looked awful and now we've plowed it and so many trees will soon be growing around it. It's wonderful that everyone has come together to plant trees to make the land beautiful."

For the next three hours, the countryside rang with the sounds of laughter as spades and shovels turned the earth and hands and feet tamped down the moist soil around each tree. Into the ground went poplar, cottonwood and willow saplings that will one day form a windbreak border around the field.

"These trees will serve two purposes," said Smardz. "This field is going to be a tree nursery for Frunze Forest and the trees we're planting will help keep grazing livestock out and serve as a windbreak so the trees can grow straight. We also brought out some old wire they'll use to build a fence around the field."

As the group of Airmen moved steadily around the field planting two rows of trees, their conversation revealed a variety of reasons for coming out for the event.

"What big kid wouldn't want to dig in the dirt," laughed Staff Sgt. Freddie Jones III, who is assigned to the 376th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron while deployed from Canon Air Force Base, N.M. "When I was a child, I loved to dig in my grandmother's garden in my hometown of New Orleans. When I saw the call for volunteers to plant trees, it brought out the child in me. What a great way to spend a Saturday."

"We had a garden when I was growing up in Junction, Texas," said Senior Airman Thomas Findlay, who is deployed from Hurlburt Field, Fla., to the 376th ECES. "I loved working in the garden planting vegetables. Getting out in the sun and working the dirt with your hands is great."

As the sun rose high overhead, the final trees went into the ground and the Airmen rubbed the dirt from their fingers before ambling across the road to the home of Namazbek Esenkanov, a local resident and employee of Frunze Forest.

"What we did today reminds me of a "Subotnik,"" said Esenkanov. "In the Soviet era, Saturdays were often a day of volunteer labor when everyone helped clean up the land, prune and plant trees, and improve the ecology. Today was a very good Subotnik that has improved the land here."

After the tree planting, the Airmen were treated to a traditional Kyrgyz meal of noodles, vegetables and meat, known as "beshparmak," which was cooked in a pot over a bed of coals. Before digging into the delicious meal, the Frunze Forest workers challenged the Airmen to several games of tug-of-war and a something similar to "pin the tail on the donkey" in which the participant is blindfolded, handed a large stick and given their best chance to strike an empty bottle several meters away. Even thought the bottle survived many a close call, the excited cheers and laughter made it clear everyone enjoyed the joint effort.

Before the meal was served, the Frunze Forest director arrived and shared his thanks with the volunteers.

"Today was the first time Airmen from Manas have helped us to plant trees," said Abdygaziev. "I hope it won't be the last because this is a wonderful way to make good neighbors and we really appreciate the help."

"What you did today was important," said the director, who is a graduate of the Forestry University in Moscow. "Some say that the base does not care about Kyrgyzstan's ecology, but what you did today shows in fact how committed you are to improving the ecology. If anyone has doubts about your commitment to the environment, I ask that they come see me and I will share with them what you helped do today."