From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Man Who Planted Trees
The Man Who Planted Trees
this young man is undertaking a lone hiking trip through
Provence, France, and into the Alps, enjoying the rela-
tively unspoiled wilderness.
The narrator runs out of water in a treeless, desolate
valley where only wild lavender grows and there is no
trace of civilization except old, empty crumbling buildin-
gs. The narrator finds only a dried up well, but is saved
by a middle-aged shepherd who takes him to a spring he
knows of.
Curious about this man and why he has chosen such
a lonely life, the narrator stays with him for a time. The
shepherd, after being widowed, has decided to restore
the ruined landscape of the isolated and largely aban-
doned valley by single-handedly cultivating a forest, tree
Pine forest by tree. The shepherd, Elzéard Bouffier, makes holes in
the ground with his curling pole and drops into the holes
acorns that he has collected from many miles away.
The narrator leaves the shepherd and returns home,
and later fights in the First World War. In 1920, shell-
shocked and depressed after the war, the man returns.
He is surprised to see young saplings of all forms taking
root in the valley, and new streams running through it
where the shepherd has made dams higher up in the
mountain. The narrator makes a full recovery in the
peace and beauty of the regrowing valley, and continues
to visit Bouffier every year. Bouffier is no longer a shep-
herd, because he is worried about the sheep affecting his
young trees, and has become a bee keeper instead.
Over four decades, Bouffier continues to plant trees,
and the valley is turned into a kind of Garden of Eden.
Mercantour National Park
By the end of the story, the valley is vibrant with life and
is peacefully settled. The valley receives official protec-
The Man Who Planted Trees (French title L’homme qui
tion after the First World War. (the authorities mistaken-
arbres),
plantait des arbres also known as The Story of Elzéard
ly believe that the rapid growth of this forest is a bizarre
Bouffier The Most Extraordinary Character I Ever Met and
Bouffier, Met,
natural phenomenon, as they are unaware of Bouffier’s
The Man Who Planted Hope and Reaped Happiness is an al-
Happiness,
selfless deeds), and more than 10,000 people move there,
legorical tale by French author Jean Giono, published in
all of them unknowingly owing their happiness to Bouffi-
1953.
er. The narrator tells one of his friends in the govern-
It tells the story of one shepherd’s long and successful
ment the truth about the natural forest, and the friend
singlehanded effort to re-forest a desolate valley in the
also helps protect the forest.
foothills of the Alps near Provence throughout the first
The narrator visits the now very old Bouffier one last
half of the 20th century. The tale is quite short—only
time in 1945. In a hospice in Banon, in 1947, the man who
about 4000 words long.
planted trees peacefully passes away.
Plot summary A true story?
The tale is narrated by a man who remains anonymous
The story itself is so touching that many readers have be-
throughout (although it has been suggested the narrator
lieved that Elzéard Bouffier was a genuine historical fig-
may perhaps be the author Jean Giono, there is no evi-
ure and that the narrator of the story was a young Jean
dence for this). The story begins in the year 1910, when
Giono himself, and that the tale is part autobiographi-
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Man Who Planted Trees
cal. Certainly, Giono lived during this time. While he was
alive, Giono enjoyed allowing people to believe that the
Film, TV or theatrical adapta-
story was real, and considered it as a tribute to his skill. tions
His daughter, Aline Giono, described it as "a family story
Main article: The Man Who Planted Trees (film)
for a long time". However, Giono himself explained in a
• It was adapted as an animated short by Frédéric Back
1957 letter to an official of the city of Digne:
and released in 1987. It earned a number of awards
Sorry to disappoint you, but Elzéard Bouffier is a including an Academy Award for Best Animated
fictional person. The goal was to make trees like- Short Film.
able, or more specifically, make planting trees like- • In 2006, it was adapted for the stage and puppets by
able. Richard Medrington of "Puppet State Theatre
Company"[8] in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In the letter, he describes how the book was translated
in a multitude of languages, distributed freely, and there-
fore was a success. He adds that, although "it does not
Spoken word recordings
bring me a cent", it is one of the texts of which he is most In 1985 the Paul Winter Consort recorded an album with
proud. Robert J. Lurtsema as the narrator. It was made into a
book-on-tape in 1990 by Earth Music Productions. In
1992, the American radio show "Hearts of Space" did a
Real-life counterparts musically-accompanied reading (episode 290, first aired
Real-life people in other countries have produced similar on 15May1992) with narration by the late Robert J. Lurt-
effects. Abdul Karim in India created a forest out of noth- sema. It has also been recorded for BBC Radio 4 with Bill
ing over a period of 19 years, using the same method as Paterson narrating.
Bouffier.[1] An organization called Trees for the Future
has assisted more than 170,000 families, in 6,800 villages
of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, to plant over 35 million
Footnotes
trees.[2] Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize recip- [1] In India, One Man Creates a Forest
ient, founded the Green Belt Movement which planted [2] Trees for the Future
over 30 million trees to restore the Kenyan environ- [3] The Greenbelt Movement
ment.[3] Shanghai Roots & Shoots, a division of the Jane [4] Shanghai Roots & Shoots
Goodall Institute launched The Million Tree Project in [5] The Million Tree Project
Kulun Qi, Inner Mongolia to plant one million trees to [6] UNEP Billion Tree Campaign
stop desertification and alleviate global warming.[4][5] [7] "Seeds of a revolution". Harmony Magazine. 2008.
The character of Bouffier has some similarity to the http://www.harmonyindia.org/hportal/
legendary early 19th century American tree planter VirtualPageView.jsp?page_id=8252. Retrieved 31
Johnny Appleseed. Another tireless promoter of tree- October 2010.
planting is Marthinus Daneel, Ph.D., Professor of African [8] "Puppet State Theatre Company homepage".
studies at Boston University and founder of ZIRRCON http://www.puppetstate.com/.
(Zimbabwean Institute of Religious Research and Ecolog-
ical Conservation). Daneel has worked with churches for External links
years planting millions of trees in Zimbabwe. Due to in-
stability in Zimbabwe in recent years, such efforts have • The Man Who Planted Trees (English Translation by
been significantly curtailed. Similarly, concerned about Peter Doyle)
global warming, Bhausaheb Thorat planted 45 million • L’homme qui plantait des arbres (Original French
seeds after being inspired by the book. For this he started version)
the Dandakaranya Abhiyaan in June 2006 at Sangamner,
Maharashtra, India (Sangamner is on Pune-Nasik high-
way). UNEP has taken notice of this campaign in its A Bil-
lion Tree Campaign in which almost 45 million seedlings
have been planted.[6] Harmony magazine Tina Anil Am-
bani has an article on Bhausaheb Thorat’s global warm-
ing awareness efforts and his Dandakaranya Abhiyaan in
the December 2008 edition.[7]
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Man Who Planted Trees
Categories:
• 1953 short stories
• French short stories
• Allegory
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