Owner of 2,500 rare sa mu and po mu trees in Nghe An

(Baonghean.vn) - Owning more than 1,000 po mu trees and 1,500 sa mu trees, Mong veteran Vu Cha Chong in Trung Tam village, Huoi Tu commune (Ky Son district) still does not want to stop, he intends to continue planting and protecting this precious wood species.

The large Po Mu trees planted by the Mong veteran Vu Cha Chong have now grown. Photo: Xuan Hoa

Born into a Mong ethnic family in the highland commune of Huoi Tu, in 1984, facing the complicated situation of bandit activities in the border area of ​​his homeland, Vu Cha Chong volunteered to join the army, wishing to contribute his efforts to protect the peace of his homeland and village.

In 1988, after returning from the army, Vu Cha Chong realized that the lives of the Mong people and his family were full of hunger and poverty. The material life and infrastructure at that time in Huoi Tu was without electricity, without roads, without schools, without medical stations...

As a soldier, trained in the army, he was determined not to let the real conditions break his will. In the early 90s of the last century, Va Cha Chong boldly applied to the government to receive 8 hectares of bare hill land to build a farm. The only capital he and his wife had at that time was labor, so both of them stuck to the fields every day to grow snow shan tea, raise chickens, pigs...

Veteran Vu Cha Chong introduces a newly planted sa mu tree. Photo: Xuan Hoa

The land did not fail him when his hill garden farm became greener and greener, the tea yielded a good income, and the livestock brought him hundreds of millions of dong each year. With that capital, he raised four children to adulthood. Now his eldest daughter is a teacher in his hometown of Huoi Tu, his second daughter is studying at Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, and the other two children are studying at ethnic boarding schools in the province.

Mr. Vu Cha Chong always wondered that since birth, he had seen immense forests of po mu and sa mu surrounding his village, but because of hunger and cold, people had cut them down. Cha Chong decided to restore the sa mu and po mu forests himself so that future generations would know about the trees that had embraced his village since ancient times.

But capital was limited and seedlings were scarce, so Vu Cha Chong's dream was still cherished. In the 2000s, when deforestation became more and more severe, he learned through the news that sa mu and po mu were in danger of extinction and were listed in the Red Book for protection.

So, overcoming many difficulties, he discussed with his wife and children to find and buy saplings of sa mu and po mu trees to plant among the family's tea hills. He went to all the communes with many sa mu and po mu forests such as Tay Son, Na Ngoi, Na Loi ... (Ky Son district) and even to the northern provinces to find saplings. To have more breeds, he "ordered" the people who went to the forest to find saplings to sell, he would buy them all.

Currently, veteran Vu Cha Chong has planted more than 5 hectares with 1,000 pơ mu trees and more than 1,500 sa mu trees. Photo: Xuan Hoa

“Sa mu and po mu trees are native trees that have existed for a long time in the land of Huoi Tu. But because of slash-and-burn farming and indiscriminate deforestation, they no longer exist. I want to preserve this precious tree species as a unique identity of the Mong ethnic village in my hometown of Huoi Tu. Another part is so that future generations will not forget the tree species that has protected my people for generations,” Mr. Vu Cha Chong shared.

The result was very satisfactory when more than twenty sa mu and po mu trees initially quickly took root and grew strongly. Taking advantage of the victory, from 2005 to 2008, Cha Chong traveled deep mountain passes and high mountains to find seedlings to plant more. Then, during his trips to the forest to find seedlings, he discovered that the seeds of these two types of trees, when old, fell to the ground and were covered with humus, so they quickly sprouted. So from the previously planted trees, he found a way to propagate them himself in his garden. He gathered the sa mu and po mu seeds together and then tilled the humus soil for the trees to sprout. From that method, he no longer needed to go everywhere to find seedlings.

The sa mu hills of the family of veteran Vu Cha Chong. Photo: Xuan Hoa

Holding a seedling in his hand, Mr. Vu Cha Chong happily boasted: “After many times going into the forest, I discovered that the seeds of these two types of trees germinate very easily when covered with thick leaf humus. So I came back to try it and the results were unexpected. When the old fruits fell, I dug up the soil right under the roots, covered them with leaves, and covered them again. After the tree sprouted and was about 15cm tall, I dug it into a pot and put it in a bag. After taking care of it for a while, the tree started to take root in the pot and then it could be planted.”

Up to now, of the 8 hectares of forest land that Mr. Cha Chong has planted, 5 hectares have been intercropped with samu and po mu trees. The number of samu trees he has planted is more than 1,500 and more than 1,000 po mu trees. In the remaining areas, he is continuing to intercrop these two types of trees with other short-term crops.

To expand the area of ​​​​samu and po mu forests, Mr. Cha Chong also provided seeds and guided planting techniques for many other families in the area. Now, from a distance of kilometers between the rolling hills of Huoi Tu land, the hills of samu and po mu trees of veteran Vu Cha Chong have grown as big as several people's arms, the treetops standing up like towers on the once barren hills.

Xuan Hoa