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The Murulle Foundation
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Updated: December 27, 2007

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The Murulle Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity that is committed to conserving the balance between cultural and natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa with initial projects in Ethiopia.

Native tree nursery provides seedlings for Bale Mountains National Park reforestation project

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Last year, for the first time in the history of Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP), thousands of native tree seedlings were successfully transplanted to a 5.5-hectare reforestation corridor near the park headquarters. The corridor will begin to connect a small, isolated pocket of land near the park headquarters to the main northern section of the park. Deforestation and the need for agricultural land had previously separated the two areas.

The native tree seedlings used for the reforestation project came from the BMNP tree nursery. The nursery was established in 2005 by The Murulle Foundation and BMNP in an effort to enhance degraded wildlife habitat, facilitate community forestry and provide needed wood products to people in the town of Dinsho.

In 2007 the nursery propagated almost 40,000 seedlings. Of those seedlings, 10,000 were used to supplement the reforestation corridor and an additional 10,000 seedlings were planted on the eastern edge of the park headquarters. Approximately 120 homesteads in Dinsho and four other communities in close proximity to the park’s boundary received 12,000 seedlings. The town of Robe requested and received 3,250 seedlings to encourage urban forestry. The remaining 3,000 seedlings were given to two primary schools near the park and planted by the schools’ respective nature clubs.

TMF will continue to fund the nursery project through 2008, providing building materials for protective fencing of reforestation areas and a storage facility for tools and collected seeds. As the reforestation effort becomes self-sustaining, TMF will redirect its efforts and begin to identify critical areas for reforestation. Using geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial models, TMF can direct future plantings within the park to best enhance mountain nyala habitat, create critical wildlife habitat corridors, prevent soil erosion, and protect the Web River watershed.