U.S. Embassy Athens Brings Together High School Students, IV, NGOs to Reforest Land Devastated by Fires; Work on Fire Prevention

November 13, 2009

Tree Planting in Pendeli (U.S. Embassy photo)

Using funds from the IV Alumni Climate Change Competition the U.S. Embassy Community planted 1,000 trees with students from local high schools (ages 15-17), their professors and school advisors,  IV alumni, and representatives of environmental NGOs on Mount Pendeli, in the northeast part of Attica.  Embassy-hired busses brought 120 people to a deforested area burnt in 2007.   The neighboring areas were also devastated by the recent fires that burnt large part of east Attica.  During the bus ride, former IV and NGO representative Michael Spanos and ECON officer Matthew Varthalamis spoke to the school children about U.S. and Greek environmental protection practices.  The kids and volunteers were greeted at the reforestation site by Ambassador Daniel Speckhard, Pendeli Mayor Dimitris Stergiou, and Greenbelt President Vassilis Xipolitas. Following brief remarks and directions on how to plant the trees, everybody got to work.  The Ambassador led a group of students in planting pine trees and laurel trees.  Following a hard – and rewarding – day’s  work, the reforestation participants were brought back to the U.S. Embassy for an American-style barbeque- greatly enjoyed by the kids.  The program concluded with a presentation by a local Fire Brigade representative and a live video conference with members of the U.S. Forest Service in Montana.