执著以求,荒漠变绿洲

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崔忠军 王文婧/编译

When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah,he happened to live near an old copper smelter. The sulfur dioxide that poured out of the refinery had made a desolate wasteland out of what used to be a beautiful forest. When a young visitor one day looked at this wasteland and saw that there was nothing living there―no animals,no trees,no grass,no bushes,no birds ... nothing but fourteen thousand acres of black and barren land that even smelled bad―well,this kid looked at the land and said,“This place is crummy.” Little Paul knocked him down. He felt insulted. But he looked around him and something happened inside him. He made a decision:Paul Rokich vowed that some day he would bring back the life to this land.

Years later Paul was in the area,and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans to bring the trees back. The answer was “No.” He asked if they would let him try to bring the trees back. Again, the answer was “No.” They didn’t want him on their land. He realized he needed to be more knowledgeable before anyone would listen to him,so he went to college to study botany.

At the college he met a professor who was an expert in Utah’s ecology. Unfortunately, this expert told Paul that the wasteland he wanted to bring back was beyond hope. He was told that his goal was foolish because even if he planted trees,and even if they grew, the wind would only blow the seeds forty feet per year,and that’s all you’d get because there weren’t any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds,and the seeds from those trees would need another thirty years before they started producing seeds of their own. Therefore,it would take approximately twenty thousand years to revegetate that six--square-mile piece of earth.

So he tried to go on with his life. He got a job operating heavy equipment,got married,and had some kids. But his dream would not die. He kept studying up on the subject,and he kept thinking about it. And then one night,Paul looked at what opportunities were right in front of him. He decided to get up and take some action. He would what he could with what he had. This was an important turning point.

Under the cover of darkness, he sneaked out into the wasteland with a backpack full of seedlings and started planting. For seven hours he planted seedlings. He did it again a week later. And every week,he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and shrubs and grass. But most of it died. For fifteen years he did this. When a whole valley of his fir seedlings burned to the ground because of a careless sheepherder, Paul broke down and wept. Then he got up and kept planting.

Freezing winds and blistering heat,landslides and floods and fires destroyed his work time and time again. But he kept planting. One night he found a highway crew had come and taken tons of dirt for a road grade,and all the plants he had painstakingly planted in that area were gone. But he just kept planting.

Monthafter month,year after year he kept at it, against the opinion of the authorities,against the trespassing laws,against the devastation of road crews, against the wind and rain and heat ... even against plain common sense. He just kept planting. Slowly,very slowly,things began to take root. Then gophers appeared. Then rabbits. Then porcupines.

Eventually, the old copper smelter saw the results and gave him permission to plant. Then later, as times were changing and there was political pressure to clean up the environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing,and they provided him with machinery and crews to work with. Progress accelerated. Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes, rich with elk and eagles, and Paul Rokich has received almost every environmental award Utah has.

Recently,Paul mused on his long decades of dedicated work,“I thought that if I got this started, when I was dead and gone people would come and see it. I never thought I’d live to see it myself!”It took him until his hair turned white, but he managed to keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child.

当保罗生活在犹他州的时候，他还是一个未成年的孩子。恰巧他家附近有一家老的炼铜厂。这家炼铜厂排出的二氧化硫气体把这里原本美丽的森林变成了荒漠之地。一天，有一位旅行者看到这片荒漠，发现那里毫无生机――没有动物出没、没有绿树生长、没有碧草繁茂、看不见灌木丛生、听不到鸟鸣其间……这1.4万英亩贫瘠之地，颜色发黑，甚至还散发着刺鼻的气味。除了这些，别无他物。这位旅行者看着这片土地说：“这地方真糟糕。”小保罗听到这话，觉得受到侮辱。他把这位旅行者打翻在地。可是，当他环顾四周时，心中波涛骤起。他下定决心：保罗・罗切兹发誓终有一天让这片贫瘠的土地重现生机。

许多年过去了，保罗一直生活在这块贫瘠的土地上。他曾去过炼铜厂办公室，问厂方有没有重新绿化的计划。厂方的回答是：“没有。”保罗又问是否同意让他尝试重新栽植树苗，得到的答案是：“不同意。”厂方不希望保罗在他们的土地上做什么。保罗意识到自己需要再博学一点，这样才有人愿意听取他的意见。于是他上了大学攻读植物学专业。

在大学期间，保罗结识了一位教授，他是研究犹他州生态学方面的专家。不幸的是，这位专家告诉保罗，重新绿化这片荒漠是不可能的事情。专家告诉保罗说他的目标很愚蠢，这是因为即使他能种上树苗、尽管树苗得以成活、每年风力只能把树种吹出40英尺开外，这就是他所能获得的全部，因为那里没有鸟和松鼠散播这些树种，加之这些树种要再过30年才能繁育子一代种子。所以，要使这块6平方英里的土地重现生机需要将近2万年的时间。

保罗找了一份操作重型设备的工作，结了婚、生了孩子。可他心中的梦想没有破灭。他坚持学习植物学，终日揣摩思考。一天晚上，保罗看到了眼前的机遇。他决定起床做点什么。他将以己所有做力之所及之事。这是一个重要的转折点。

在夜幕笼罩之下，保罗身挎一装满树种的背包，偷偷溜进这片荒漠，开始栽植树苗。他一连栽了7个小时。一个星期以后，他又栽了一次。此后每周，他都会秘密潜入荒漠栽种树苗、灌木和草。可是他种的这些大部分都枯萎死去了。当由于一个牧羊人的粗心，导致他栽植的整谷冷杉幼苗都付之一炬的时候，保罗瘫倒在地，不禁失声痛哭。接着他又站了起来，继续栽树。

寒风酷热、山体滑坡、洪水山火，一次又一次地损毁新苗。可保罗还是不停地栽着。一天夜里，他发现一名路政人员来挖走了数吨松土去修公路斜坡。那里他悉心栽的树苗荡然无存。可他仍然继续栽树。

不管当局的反对、冒着非法占用土地的罪名、不怕路政人员的损毁、不畏风雨炎热……甚至不顾别人的误解，保罗坚持栽树，继续绿化、经月经年。由于保罗的坚持，事情渐渐有了起色。荒漠里出现了囊鼠，接着有兔子、豪猪出没。

最终，那家炼铜厂看到了保罗所取得的成绩，于是他们便允许保罗在他们的荒漠上种树。再后来，随着时代的发展，迫于当局治理环境的政治压力，那家炼铜厂竟然雇用保罗为他们种树。他们还给保罗提供机械和人力供使用和差遣。结果绿化进展相当快。现在这片土地拥有绿树、碧草和灌木1.4万英亩。这里还生活着众多的麋鹿和雕。

保罗几乎荣获了犹他州所有的环保奖项。最近，保罗回顾自己这些年来辛苦的工作时说：“我原想如果我起个头，当我有一天老去了，人们还会来看我未尽的事业。我没有想到自己能活着看到这些变化。”这些变化、成绩耗费了保罗一生的心力，不过他确成功地坚守了孩提时对自己许下的诺言。