Tolga Kanık

04th December 2008

I have decided to spend the 2008 Explore Tour Leader Awards prize money on tree plantation in Ankara. The location selected for the mission was a previously afforested area of Middle East Technical University (METU) campus, Ankara gone after a big forest fire last summer.

Since the fire was so dramatic and I am a graduate of METU, I thought I would better off spending the prize money to help solve this issue. I talked to the director of METU campus landscape architecture about the possibilities. Being very helpful, the director Mr. Erhan recommended the area I have mentioned above. The area affected is situated on the outskirts of METU campus. The METU forest is the largest man made woodland area of Turkey which forms a green contrast to its arid Central Anatolian surroundings. The protection of this 23 million tree forest plays an important role for erosion control and providing city of Ankara with fresh oxygen supply. The METU management scheduled the affected area for re-plantation with 9000 saplings in December, 2008. Yet more to be planted in the same zone by the next March. The director agreed upon acquiring another 104 saplings for my contribition. In the end, we revitalized a fairly big area literally making it recover from the disaster. We planted my saplings on the 4th of December 2008 (see photos below).

Thanks again for providing us with such opportunity.

The whole area I have planted my own saplings (towards east)