A crew of volunteers moves across the mountainside. The ground beneath them is burnt. In the bare dirt, they plant seedlings. They’re working to restore the land.
In 2022, New Mexico experienced the largest wildfire in its recorded history. It started as two “prescribed burns.” Forest managers sometimes perform these small, planned burns. They’re meant to prevent massive, destructive fires. But something went wrong. The prescribed burns blazed out of control. Hundreds of miles of forest turned to ash.
Those trees had an important job. In that dry southwestern state, forests help clean and retain (hold) water. According to The Nature Conservancy, forests provide more than half the water used by New Mexico’s towns and farms.
Now volunteers work to replant. On Saturday, they planted nearly 400 ponderosa pine seedlings. It had rained the night before, making the ground just right for digging. They focused on spots where the wildfire left no trees standing.
On some days, teams as small as 20 volunteers can plant a thousand trees.
“It’s strength in numbers,” says worker Joseph Casedy. He admits the planting can be tough work. It requires bending down and packing soil, over and over.
Even a thousand trees isn’t enough. The Nature Conservancy is a global nonprofit dedicated to protecting nature. With donations, the group purchased 5,000 seedlings for New Mexico. New Mexico Highlands University provided another 3,500 baby trees.
Land managers believe these seedlings will form “islands” of trees. Those trees will make even more trees by producing seeds. Eventually, the forest will regrow itself.
But at the moment, it needs help. Some areas burned so badly that nothing can grow there yet. And winter will come soon. Volunteers race to beat the freeze. They will keep planting through early October.
Passersby could easily mistake the tiny seedlings for fallen twigs. It’s hard to imagine those small sticks becoming a mighty forest. The volunteers might not see that happen in their lifetimes. But they work for the future. They know their work will take root and someday grow on its own.
God calls His people to a similar work. We share the gospel with a broken world. The seeds we plant might look small. But we trust God will grow them. Who knows? Maybe the person you tell about Jesus today will tell others about Him in the future. That little seed could grow into a forest of believers.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. — Jeremiah 17:7-8
