Cemal Güdül from Giresun has planted over 20 thousand saplings on 80 decares of land in Koman village of Alucra district.

Cemal Güdül, 83 years old Cemal Güdül from Giresun, is making great efforts and greening the idle lands in his village with yellow pine trees.

Güdül, who lives in Samsun and spends 8-9 months of the year in his hometown Koman village in Alucra district of Giresun, planted the first sapling in his village 30 years ago.

Güdül, who planted saplings one by one, devoted himself to this work in the following years in order to green the idle and stony lands in his village. Güdül, who has recently had difficulty walking due to his age and whom those around him call "Cemal Emmi", continues to plant saplings on the lands by giving pocket money to the young people in the village.

Güdül, who planted over 20 thousand saplings on 80 decares of land, finds peace as his village becomes greener.

Cemal Güdül told AA correspondent that his love for trees started with the pine sapling he planted in front of his house in Samsun.

Afterwards, Güdül explained that he took pine saplings to Alucra from Samsun by lorry and planted them in the cemetery and school garden, "After that, this love continued with me. A chief from the Forest Management Directorate came, showed us the terracing, gave us information about the trees, and this business continued like this."

Güdül stated that his village has a rural and stony structure and said, "For 30 years, we have planted over 20 thousand pines in this rural area, in the stones. God gave life, we were instrumental, we gave water in the summer, and such forests were created. If there were more suitable areas, I would plant 20 thousand saplings a year."

Stating that planting trees is a labour of love, Güdül continued his words as follows:

"This is love, affection, without love this would not be possible, this cannot be done with money, you have to love it, you have to fall in love with it, we fell in love with it. We have brought it to this day, we have afforested the village. At first I was doing everything myself, but now I cannot afford it anymore. I get help from young people, most of them call me 'emmi', I give them their pocket money. There are 4-5 young people in our village who have adopted this job, they are happy to do it, they do not necessarily ask for money. Of course, I give them their labour."

Güdül stated that he meets all the costs of planting saplings himself and said, "There is irrigation for 2 months in the summer, 3-4 thousand liras, whatever the money is, I cover this figure in the summer. Hoeing is done, other works are done. Without these, there would be no forest here, these places are stony, there is no soil, you will constantly water it. I tell young people, don't ever say, "Uncle, why do you spend this money here?" This is a beauty. The greenery and beauty of these pines give me life. I have three companies, one of them is these pine trees."

Noting that the memorial forests he created have a meaning, Güdül said:

"There is no land without trees and no homeland without martyrs. Without trees there is no soil, without martyrs there is no homeland. In the other memorial forest, there is the memory of our grandfather Çakır Mustafa, the names of his six sons, all of them have a memory at the beginning. If I did not create this forest, you could not write this memory here. We planted the tree, surrounded it, watered it, grew it, this is a memory. Today's young people do not know our elders, this is how they learnt about them."

Cemal Güdül stated that they will plant 5 thousand more saplings with young people next year and asked everyone to adopt the love of trees and plant trees.

83-year-old "Cemal Emmi" has been afforesting idle lands in his village for 30 years (aa.com.tr)