JUST KEEP PLANTING

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JUST KEEP PLANTING

 

Written by Adam Khan

Author of: Self-Help Stuff That Works

 

When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah, he happened to live near an

old copper smelter, and the sulfur dioxide that poured out of the

refinery had made a desolate wasteland out of what used to be a

beautiful forest.

 

When a young visitor one day looked at this wasteland and saw that

there was nothing living there — no animals, no trees, no grass, no

bushes, no birds ... nothing but fourteen thousand acres of black and

barren land that even smelled bad — well, this kid looked at the land

and said, " This place is crummy. " Little Paul knocked him down. He

felt insulted. But he looked around him and something happened inside

him. He made a decision: Paul Rokich vowed that some day he would

bring back the life to this land.

 

Many years later Paul was in the area, and he went to the smelter

office. He asked if they had any plans to bring the trees back. The

answer was " No. " He asked if they would let him try to bring the trees

back. Again, the answer was " No. " They didn't want him on their land.

He realized he needed to be more knowledgeable before anyone would

listen to him, so he went to college to study botany.

 

At the college he met a professor who was an expert in Utah's ecology.

Unfortunately, this expert told Paul that the wasteland he wanted to

bring back was beyond hope. He was told that his goal was foolish

because even if he planted trees, and even if they grew, the wind

would only blow the seeds forty feet per year, and that's all you'd

get because there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds,

and the seeds from those trees would need another thirty years before

they started producing seeds of their own. Therefore, it would take

approximately twenty thousand years to revegetate that six-square-mile

piece of earth. His teachers told him it would be a waste of his life

to try to do it. It just couldn't be done.

 

So he tried to go on with his life. He got a job operating heavy

equipment, got married, and had some kids. But his dream would not

die. He kept studying up on the subject, and he kept thinking about

it. And then one night he got up and took some action. He did what he

could with what he had. This was an important turning point. As Samuel

Johnson wrote, " It is common to overlook what is near, by keeping the

eye fixed on something remote. In the same manner, present

opportunities are neglected and attainable good is slighted by minds

busied in extensive ranges. "

 

Paul stopped busying his mind in extensive ranges and looked at what

opportunities for attainable good were right in front of him. Under

the cover of darkness, he sneaked out into the wasteland with a

backpack full of seedlings and started planting. For seven hours he

planted seedlings. He did it again a week later.

 

And every week, he made his secret journey into the wasteland and

planted trees and shrubs and grass. But most of it died. For fifteen

years he did this. When a whole valley of his fir seedlings burned to

the ground because of a careless sheepherder, Paul broke down and

wept. Then he got up and kept planting.

 

Freezing winds and blistering heat, landslides and floods and fires

destroyed his work time and time again. But he kept planting. One

night he found a highway crew had come and taken tons of dirt for a

road grade, and all the plants he had painstakingly planted in that

area were gone. But he just kept planting.

 

Week after week, year after year he kept at it, against the opinion of

the authorities, against the trespassing laws, against the devastation

of road crews, against the wind and rain and heat ... even against

plain common sense. He just kept planting. Slowly, very slowly, things

began to take root. Then gophers appeared. Then rabbits. Then porcupines.

 

The old copper smelter eventually gave him permission, and later, as

times were changing and there was political pressure to clean up the

environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already

doing, and they provided him with machinery and crews to work with.

Progress accelerated. Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of

trees and grass and bushes, rich with elk and eagles, and Paul Rokich

has received almost every environmental award Utah has.

 

He says, " I thought that if I got this started, when I was dead and

gone people would come and see it. I never thought I'd live to see it

myself! " It took him until his hair turned white, but he managed to

keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child. Read More

about Paul & the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine

 

What was it you wanted to do that you thought was impossible? Paul's

story sure gives a perspective on things, doesn't it? The way you get

something accomplished in this world is to just keep planting. Just

keep working. Just keep plugging away at it one day at a time for a

long time, no matter who criticizes you, no matter how long it takes,

no matter how many times you fall. Get back up again. And just keep

planting.

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