'Forest Reviver' 2 times Hero has returned to the great forest

Love and attachment to forestry

In my writing career, I am fortunate to have had many contacts and know well about Labor Heroes.Nguyen Ngoc Lai. Previously, I visited Con Cuong Forestry when he was the director and was preparing to be awarded the Hero title for the second time, following him on field trips to understand more about "lazy forests, diligent forests", to understand more about a director who "punishes himself" and always "focuses on building forest capital" (these phrases only exist at Con Cuong Forestry). When I or anyone else comes to learn, Mr. Lai personally takes me to the forest, to replace the most honest and accurate report.

Hero of Labor Nguyen Ngoc Lai. Photo courtesy

The director's car is just an old, overhauled car. I always remember his words: "We cannot drive luxury cars, and luxury cars are only to show off, not to serve our forest work. We cannot show off when the workers are still in need and not well-fed..." And on the door of Director Lai's very "special" car is the slogan "Focus on the cause of building forest capital". And from the Forestry Office to the offices of the teams, there are also slogans initiated by him "All for building forest capital".

Talking about Labor Hero Nguyen Ngoc Lai, people often joke about the contrast between his two noble awards: the first Labor Hero was the "forest-clearing" Hero; the Labor Hero of the renovation period was the "forest-planting" Hero.

Hero Nguyen Ngoc Lai, born in 1938, is from Thanh Binh commune, Thanh Chuong district. He was orphaned at a young age, and it was this hometown with a tradition of lacquer painting that sowed in him the love and attachment to the forestry profession.

In 1961, he left his hometown to become a worker at Con Cuong Forestry. Three years later, he became the production team leader, and for five consecutive years the team was recognized as a Socialist Labor Team. In 1968, the Trung Chinh Logging Team, led by him, made many improvements in the logging method from "sledgehammer" to "chain saw"; initiated the improvement of the "xai road" (a type of steep road, with buffalo-sized rocky mountains on both sides, which cannot be pulled by humans, and must use elephant strength to push the wood down) by opening an additional "trieng" road on the gently sloping mountainside, going down to the bottom of the stream...

From the above initiatives, Trung Chinh Team became the core of Con Cuong Forestry in completing the annual timber exploitation target. With many achievements in bringing the Forestry plan to the finish line early, in 1985, he was honored to receive the Third Class Labor Medal from the State and the title of Labor Hero.

Forest Revivalist

In 1988, he was promoted to Party Secretary and Deputy Director of the Forestry Enterprise. In 1991, he officially held the position of Director, this was a transitional period and also the end of the "deforestation" period. The rich timber forest had been exploited almost to the point of exhaustion, while the capital of the Con Cuong Forestry Enterprise was only 40 million VND. Mr. Lai felt like he was in debt because of "deforestation".

Like a drifter who catches a raft, from Program 317, Mr. Lai directed Con Cuong Forestry to quickly restore and regenerate forest capital. Bare land, bare hills and mountains and in the forest area of ​​the Forestry were covered with green. In his turning point to become a Hero for the second time, it was from his thoughts and research that became the slogan for the Forestry to effectively implement: Renovating sandbars; renovating ditches; renovating hills and mountains and processing products. He explained that renovating sandbars is to take agriculture as the foundation for settling down, which is a condition for sustainable forestry development. Renovating sandbars is to reclaim and restore hilly land, flat land, and sandbar land, exploiting all the potential of existing land...

Pu Mat National Park. Photo: Archive

Go through all the forests of "Mr. Lai" in Khe Xoc, Khe Luong..., next to Kem waterfall, buffer zonePu Mat National ParkOnly when we see the majestic beauty of a green forest worth hundreds of billions of dong can we fully understand the meaning of the phrase "lazy forest" (poor forest) into "diligent forest" (forest of economic value).

And it seems that from here, he also reduced his debt to the forests that he and his workers once destroyed, which have now become forests of high economic value, and are recognized as the leading birds in the Nghe An Forestry industry.

Not only famous as a forest reviver with two times being awarded the title of Labor Hero, he is also known as an exemplary and dedicated people's representative in the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th National Assembly terms. With his contributions to the cause of protecting, building and developing forest capital and many other fields, in 2000, Con Cuong Forestry was awarded the title of Labor Hero in the renovation period by the State and the First Class Labor Medal in 2005. Director Nguyen Ngoc Lai was honored to be awarded the title of Labor Hero for the second time in 2002. With more than 50 years of Party membership and more than 41 years of association with Con Cuong Forestry, he retired in 2002.

Hero Nguyen Ngoc Lai has greened bare land, bare hills and forests as "paying the debt to the forest". Photo: Archive

Recalling memories of him, I still cannot forget the "self-punishing director". When he was still in office, he and the forestry collective issued a regulation that if any department did not complete its tasks well through monthly and quarterly classification, that group had to receive a green flag, and only when it was better could it be replaced with a red flag, and the team leader and director had to take joint responsibility by being punished with a day's salary depending on the classification level. Only when I saw the director's name in the list of salary deductions from the finance department did I believe it. Perhaps in my writing career, I have only seen the only "self-punishing director" in Vietnam: Hero Nguyen Ngoc Lai.

In early December 2020, upon receiving an invitation, Labor Hero Nguyen Ngoc Lai was still present at the 75th Anniversary of the Vietnam Forestry Sector, coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Nghe An Province. He did not expect that this would be the last time he would be able to review the glorious tradition of the Forestry Sector, to which he was one of the great contributors.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lai with forest workers. Photo: Archive

As fate would have it, he suddenly passed away at the age of 83 at 11:15 a.m. on December 22, 2020. Perhaps before he left, he was always concerned about how to preserve and develop the forest!

“Father devoted his life to building and developing forests, his descendants should do their best to protect the forests...”. Future generations will always remember that he left behind “a road named after Mr. Lai”, “Mr. Lai forest”... Let us recall these memories with respect like a stick of incense before the soul of the Hero!