Seeing trees in Afghanistan's future.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

CORVALLIS - Afghanistan probably has more land mines than trees, but forester Robin Rose can't wait to get back there.

Rose, a forest regeneration scientist at Oregon State University, spent just two weeks in the war-torn nation last summer, but ever since then he's been knocking on doors from Oregon to Washington, D.C., trying to get permission to return. There are trees to be planted on the country's now-barren hills, and Rose is itching to get started.

"I want to go back there so bad I can taste it," he said from his campus office. "I would go back in a heartbeat."

Rose is so eager to get at it, he truly cannot sit still. Last week he traveled to Washington to meet with Sen. Gordon Smith's staff to try to get the ball rolling. Smith's office is trying to make something happen, but so far no one has been able to penetrate the federal or United Nations bureaucracies to get a green light.

But Rose will keep trying. He's convinced those dun-colored hillsides can again be turned green. He's done similar things in Thailand and South Africa, and with research trips to a dozen other countries as well as a tour in Vietnam, he's undeterred by the challenge of reforesting a war-torn Afghanistan.

"None of this is new to me," he said, shooting out sentences like someone who's been there, done that and can't wait to do it again. "I know where to start. It can be done. It's all very doable."

Afghanistan isn't exactly lush when it comes to trees. Even before the wars, only about 6 percent of the country was forested, Rose said, and those areas have been winnowed by fighting and now poaching, as Afghans seek wood to rebuild their homes and businesses.

But the struggling nation does have one working nursery. And even though it's about 100 years behind the times, it's well-stocked with native Afghan pines as well as fruit trees and non-native trees introduced long ago and well adapted to the climate.

It's called the Paghman Nursery, and Rose said all it needs is a little American know-how to turn it into a model propagation center for the entire country.

"For 5 percent of the cost of an air-to-ground missile, I could put some stuff in there you couldn't believe and have a system that would just gladden everybody's heart and make them happy," he said. "What has to happen is they need to be able to ramp up to growing millions of trees, which they could do. The capacity is absolutely there, bar none."

The biggest difference between Afghanistan and some other countries Rose has worked in is Afghanistan still is riven with armed conflict, with much of the countryside controlled by warlords and armed marauders. Everywhere he went, Rose saw the wreckage left from the war with the Russians, followed by the war with the Taliban, followed by the war with the Americans.

"Afghanistan, and you can quote me on this, has just been blown to hell," he said. "The buildings everywhere you go were just shot full of anti-aircraft fire and bullets. There was all kinds of devastation everywhere you looked."

Rose doesn't disagree with President Bush's decision to attack the country after its Taliban leaders refused to turn over terror mastermind Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. As a Vietnam veteran, he said he understands war and appreciates the sacrifice U.S. troops have made, but he also thinks Afghans should see the other side of America.

"I love our Marines; I love their bravery," Rose said. "But I also think we need to present an image over there of somebody who comes in and says `I'm not here to blow things up. I'm here to start a forestry program, start a program in schools.' '

Working under the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act, Rose's mission last year was to help set up the Afghan Conservation Corps. It has much the same goal as the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps in this country, putting people to work on public infrastructure projects.

Rose said ramping up production at the Paghman Nursery wouldn't be a particularly difficult or expensive job. Parts for a few greenhouses, pumps and other gear can fit into a few cargo containers and be shipped along military supply chains in a matter of days at a cost of maybe $250,000, a mere drop in the bucket compared to what the Pentagon spent evicting the Taliban.

Doing that and getting Paghman up to a million-tree capacity is a dream that's never far from Rose's mind.

"I've walked that nursery; I've got all the photos of it," he said. "I know where the water tower needs to go. I've played this thing over in my dreams and my mind a thousand times. I walk the nursery all the time."

For now, though, Rose remains a half a world away from that dream. He'll be going back to South Africa next month to see how his nursery project there is going, but he'll keep chipping away at the bureaucracy that stands between him and Afghanistan.

Trees, after all, are Rose's life. And who could say no to a man who just wants to plant some trees?

"I love what I do," he said. "I don't know how to describe it, but there's just a lot of good in it. Good with a capital G."

CAPTION(S):

Robin Rose, a professor at Oregon State University, talks about reforestation practices with a group of men in Afghanistan. Rose says the country has a working nursery, which could use American know-how. Oregon State University