- Our 2008 schedule is coming soon
- Join RNK for June, July or August 2008
- Take a look at the new 2007 Photo Gallery
- Multilingual website is under development

Reforestation

of Northern

Khentii

a mongolian community project supported by volunteer tourism

PROJECT PROGRESS:

Check back here to see how our project is coming along and what our goals are for each phase of reforestation. Also, see pictures of our camp events at the Photo Gallery!

FIRST ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

This year marks a very important and very exciting first step in the development of Reforestation of Northern Khentii.

Early in 2006, RNK was able to secure a site for our reforestation work camp in Khentii Bag, north of the town of Umnudelger. The site offers a very nice, brightly-colored former school building, which serves as our crew quarters and houses our kitchen and lounge facilities.

Camp site at Khentii Bag.

The courtyard of the school has been offered to us as the site of our tourist ger camp and of the planting field of our nursery and garden. The local well is just outside the courtyard.

This spring, our founders' private resources funded the plowing of a section of the courtyard field for our use. Although planting of saplings will not begin until the spring of 2007, we are pleased that the local people of the Bag have already begun to use the field for their vegetable garden.

2006 SUMMER LANGUAGE CAMP FUNDRAISER:

Because of our founders' close relationship to local education through the Soum school and the Enlightenment Center, the RNK project has organized a summer English-language camp for our young students to help us fundraise.

Camp class in front of building.

In early August, our camp in Khentii Bag hosted 10 eager students in the former school building, where our crew quarters are located. The kids practiced their English and learned about ecology and our reforestation project. The summer camp was a great way to inaugurate the site and prepare it for future volunteer tourists!

CAMP WORK IN 2006:

Building the composting toilet.

In our short time at our Khentii Bag camp this year, we were able to dig up and build a new composting toilet, which is a sustainable solution to waste management and recycling. We also renovated a part of the school building's roof overhanging the door.

REFORESTATION GOALS FOR 2007:

We are now sending soil samples from our nursery site in Khentii Bag and from our plantation site at the Hangal spring to Ulaanbaatar researchers for analysis. They will determine the best types of trees to plant and what kind of composting should be used.

We will be using two planting methods: raising saplings from seeds and transplanting small branches cut from mature trees. Initial care for seedlings and transplanted branches will be done in the spring. As well, the nursery field at Khentii Bag will be tilled and ready for planting.

VOLUNTEER WORK IN 2007:

Our work next year will include building the camp itself – volunteers will learn how to put up a traditional ger in about an hour! We will also put the finishing touches on our new toilet and we'll build a new stove-heated shower. The stove is a fuel-efficient model, which conserves wood but will provide comfortable, warm showers.

The property around our schoolhouse also requires a new fence to protect our nursery, so we will be putting that up throughout the summer. And of course, volunteers will have the chance to care for the small plants in our nursery.

As participants, you will be instrumental in helping us start the first reforestation project in Khentii. You will be helping us complete our residential work camp, which will be used by our Mongolian crew as well as by subsequent volunteer tourists.