On Nov 19, 4:01*pm, "Don Phillipson" wrote:
"DaveS" wrote in message

...

In another thread this French classic inspirational tale of the union
between ecolgical transformation and a peoples well being, was
mentioned but i had forgotten the specific reference. I found
it . . . . The story's title is "The Man Who Planted Trees."

http://perso.ch/arboretum/man_tree.htm

This story by Jean Giono has distinct literary value but should not
be assumed factual in every particular. * I briefly lived in Menerbes,
Vaucluse, in 1958, when Elzéard Bouffier had been forgotten -- if
he ever existed.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

According to Wikipedia:

"Giono himself explained in a 1957 letter to an official of the city
of Digne:

Sorry to disappoint you, but Elzéard Bouffier is a fictional person.
The goal was to make trees likeable, or more specifically, make
planting trees likeable."

The article goes on to mention many real life counterparts to Bouffier
including, not surprisingly, our own peripatetic Johnny Appleseed (aka
Jonathan Chapman). Interestingly, Giono's story was made into an
animated short feature in 1987 and won an academy award.

As for the transformative power of trees described in the story, well,
anyone who has seen a denuded landscape turned into a forest (or vice
versa, as is, unfortuately, more often the case) can testify to the
existence of real miracles.

So the story is true enough.

Wolfgang