The man who spent 25 years digging resin at night

I am Pham Dang Binh (61 years old), from My Trung village, Cam My commune, Cam Xuyen district, Ha Tinh. In 2000, I quit my job as a forest ranger at the Ke Go Nature Reserve Management Board and started my career as a pine resin hoeer.

I am Pham Dang Binh (61 years old), from My Trung village, Cam My commune, Cam Xuyen district, Ha Tinh . In 2000, I quit my job as a forest ranger at the Ke Go Nature Reserve Management Board and started the job of hoeing (exploiting) pine resin.

The pine resin harvesting season starts from March to December every year. This job depends on the weather, the hotter the weather, the more resin the pine trees produce. To avoid the heat and get more pine resin, I have to wake up at 2am to prepare a hoe, drinking water, rice and wear salted socks to prevent leeches and snails from harming me.

When night began to fall, I finished preparing, attached a flashlight to my head and drove my motorbike into the pine forest to start work.

After more than 20 minutes of riding a motorbike, I reached the edge of the forest and continued walking deep into the pine forest.

I took care of, protected and exploited more than 500 pine trees for resin from the Management Board of Ke Go Nature Reserve. This area is located on 3 high mountains, pine trees grow mainly from the middle of the mountain to the top, so I had to climb hills and mountains to exploit resin.

The pine trees here are mainly 20-30 years old, many are over 40 years old. In the entire pine forest, not all trees are tapped for resin, I have to choose trees that are old enough and have a diameter of 20 cm or more.

For pine trees with diameters under 20 cm, we continue to care for and protect them until they reach the standard before starting to exploit resin.

When collecting resin, I have to follow a strict exploitation process and technique, ensuring the growth and development of the pine trees. Although the forest area has been assigned to my family, the resin exploitation activity must be approved by the Management Board of Ke Go Nature Reserve.

The worker must regularly hoe and chisel into the tree trunk to let the sap flow out. Each time he hoes, he only opens the trunk 3-5cm long and 0.2-0.3cm thin. Therefore, he must hold the hoe firmly and make each chop decisively.

From the hoe marks, streams of milky white sap flowed down the grooves into the bowl below.

Every time I go to dig for resin, I have to travel a distance of nearly 15 km winding through the mountains. After digging more than 100 trees, it is also around 5 am, I rest and have lunch right on the top of the mountain.

After finishing my meal, I sharpened my hoe and continued working, because if I didn't hoe for a day, the pine tree wouldn't give sap.

The characteristic of pine is that it produces little sap on rainy days, so I have to take advantage of sunny days to exploit it. Therefore, in addition to being diligent, I also have to calculate, organize, take advantage of time and listen to the weather to achieve work efficiency.

After 7-10 days of continuous digging, today I went to harvest resin. Each pine tree yields 2-3kg of resin per month. In the hot summer, pine trees will flow resin faster than in the winter, so the amount of resin collected is also greater.

With more than 500 pine trees under contract, each year I have to pay 0.8kg/tree/year to the Management Board of Ke Go Nature Reserve. The price of pine resin currently fluctuates from 15,000 - 20,000 VND/kg, each month I earn from 5-6 million VND.

Today I collected nearly 70kg of resin. Due to the steep terrain, I had to pack the resin in bags to drag down the mountain, and each day I collected resin, I delivered it to the traders that day. I usually returned home with a hoe at noon, ending a hard day's work.

Currently, in Cam My commune, there are 13 households exploiting pine resin in the forests of Ke Go Nature Reserve. Although this job is hard, tiring, and has low income, for the sake of making a living and for the goal of protecting the forest, I and other households still stick with this job.

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/nguoi-dan-ong-25-nam-cuoc-nhua-thong-trong-dem-post289067.html