Kalistan

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Her Highness Princess Jennifer Ananto-Rosenfeld Volunteers with Arborists
Will plant trees until mustering into NSP next month
Dulnerstaad, Grand Duchy of Ananto
June 1, 5724


Princess Jennifer Ananto-Rosenfeld in Kaliburg last month

Her Highness, Princess Jennifer Ananto-Rosenfeld, who reached her Majority last January, is now in Dulnerstaad working with the Dulnerstaad local of the 10 Million Tree Initiative. She started working with the Initiative as soon as she graduated from High School late last month. She says she plans to plant 150 trees before entering National Service in July.

"I've done this for the past couple summers," said the Princess. "My Great Grandmother, Mary Ananto started this program to bring back the Redwoods to our northern shores, and they've far exceeded 10 Million trees planted. People following her example have planted close to 600,000 acres of redwood forests, but before the ancient Kalistanis clearcut their forests, there were at least three times that many acres covered with old growth forest. So I think Kalistanis will continue to plant trees until we realize Mary's true vision for Kalistan: restoring the Redwood to its natural habitat, to not only restore the Natural habitats for the animals and plants that used to cover our northern shores, but also to provide Kalistan a sustainable, reliable and renewable source of the beautiful redwood pine wood to decorate and beautify our homes."

The Princess said that the work here is not just aiming for long term ecological improvement, to get her ready for National Service. "I muster in early next month, and I might want to work with our trees while in National Service, or with our reservoirs or something that deals with ecology. But whatever I do, I will need to be physically fit, and fitness and diet are pretty important to me already, but I want to get strong before I go in. What better way to build muscle than to plant trees? Then I'll be ready for all the physical conditioning my brother (His Highness the Crown Prince) told me that they do in the NSP."

The Princess has already traded her beautiful couture clothes and jewelry for simple hemp work trousers and a khaki linen shirt. "I gotta get used to dressing like this too," she laughed. "The uniform in the NSP is just that: A utility uniform. It is made for function, not fashion. It's hemp, linen and canvas: that's it. Meant for durability and comfort--they don't care so much about lines and silhouettes."

The Princess also said she might cut her hair off too. "My hair goes down almost to my waist. Long hair has become something of a status symbol in Kalistan over the last few decades- I think starting with my great grandmother, the Empresses and Princesses always have really long hair. My sister and I also have hair all the way down. It's become something of an imperative, like look your station, you have to grown your hair super long. But when I'm out working, I'm not going to want to have to worry about you know, what if it gets caught in a machine or something. I don't know. My mother said I can wear it up like she did when she went through the Service, but I also know her hair was way shorter than it is now, or mine is. I think I could cut it off and just focus on what I am doing, and not have to take an hour in the shower every day. I could do like Aunt Nicky when she was a surfer. She had that cute pixie cut. I liked that hairstyle for her. I might do something like that. It would really make me look different, for sure, but it would be so much more practical and my mom would just have to deal with it."

Asked if she was excited to get into National Service, Her Highness said, "I think I will be when I find out what my job is. Serving our nation is so important. It is the one thing all people in our nation, all citizens I should say, share in common. It is a unifying cultural thing: We all do service to our nation, from the Empress all the way down to the guy who has a developmental disability and can't maybe build a plane but he can do something. Do Your Best is the NSP's motto. And that's enforced. And we all do our best. So whatever I end up doing, I will do my best at it, and proudly serve my nation, the greatest nation in Terra. It will make me very happy if I can do it doing something with keeping our environment healthy and clean- That is a passion of mine, and I really hope I can do that for the next four years."

The Princess said she is staying with other arborists volunteering with the Tree Initiative in base camps. "It's getting me used to living outside, with others in kinda primitive settings. If I can handle living out of doors for a month, I can handle living at the Barracks for four years. It's definitely not as comfortable as my bed at home, but I am toughening up now. I'll hit the ground running when I muster in next month."

The Princess was very optimistic about her upcoming enlistment. "But more exciting than even that is planting these trees. Do you know that the Kalistani Redwoods have one of the highest carbon absorption rates of any trees? A single acre of these redwoods can absorb between 900 and a thousand tonnes of carbon in its lifetime, and we have like 650,000 acres of these trees. Every tree we plant neglects the climate destruction of like 55 gasoline burning cars. Every tree we plant reverses global warming, and I am here for that. That means, if I meet my goal of 150 trees this month before I go into service, which is totally doable at only 5 trees a day, I will alone counteract the pollution of 8250 cars. Just myself. In one month. We're turning Northern Kalistan into a giant carbon sink and I love that for us. We can plant trees faster than they can burn fossil fuels."

@LaModa