Seeding hope: 70-year-old amputee veteran planting trees on barren hills for 17 years in N China

Ma Sanxiao, a 70-year-old veteran who had both of his legs amputated as a result of septicemia during a military operation, had been planting trees on barren hills since 2000 in Jingxing County, north China’s Hebei province. Ma had undergone 12 surgeries, lost his little finger, and suffered comminuted fractures during his 17 years of hard work to increase vegetation cover in the region. A disastrous rainstorm that destroyed 3,800 trees and all pipes connecting Ma’s 18 forestlands discouraged him to great e