Plant a Tree in Israel

I went to a friend's brother's Bar Mitzvah and as a present a gave him a card and money. When I asked my friend what she had gotten her brother, she told me she paid for some trees in Israel to be donated in his name. While I don't really believe that a 13 year old boy would really like this kind of present that much, she told me that many of her jewish friends and family donate trees to Israel as gifts at birthdays.

This is organised by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) which was establish in 1901 and since then has planted over 240 million trees over Israel, thanks to donations from jews around the world. They were planting trees even before the creation of Israel. When Israel was established, they sold land to the JNF and by 2007 JNF owned about 13% percent of Israelie land.

The aim of JNF is to transform Israel's barren land into a lush forest. There are no natural forests in this country, all of the trees are planted by humans. The number of trees JNF has managed to plant has noticeably changed the country from the original desert-like land into something entirely different. It is obvious that JNF has done this for environmental reasons though I can't help but wonder if they are trying to transform it back into the land that was described in the bible.

When someone donates trees, they get a certificate that says "Donated in the name of...". If one went to Israel, to look at the trees that have been planted in their name, would there be a way to find them? Do they put plaques, on or near the trees to show who owns which trees? Somehow I think there are too many trees in planted to do this though...

I like the concept that jews all over the world can buy these trees and all own a little part of the country.