Preparing to reforest the Carmel

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 | Israel Today Staff

Israel this week set up a monument and inaugurated an annual memorial for the victims of the massive Carmel Mountain wildfire that devastated the forests of northern Israel one year ago.

The monument was established at a bend in the road leading up Mount Carmel where a bus carrying Prison Services officers was caught in a flash inferno en route to evacuate a nearby prison. All 36 of the officers perished in the fire. Another eight people were killed as the fire consumed 12,000 acres of dense forest. It was later estimated that just under half of the entire Carmel forest reserve had been destroyed.

But now it's time to rebuild. Having given the scorched land time to replenish, Israel Today and a number of other organizations are ready to replant the lost forests. Early next year, Israel Today will plant a forest on 50 dunams (12 acres) in the Carmel reserve. But we need your help!

Our readers responded in remarkable fashion days after the Carmel Disaster by purchasing thousands of trees for the upcoming replanting. But we still need thousands more to fill our 50-dunam Israel Today Forest!