Gradually he was nursed back to wholeness. He was then able to return to Cambridge University. However, he was faced with the question of how to pay for his education. The answer came in a dream.

In his sleep, he saw the design for what became the first modern caravans, also called travel trailers. He used plywood and thirty-six airplane undercarriages, left over from the war, to build them. With the profit from his invention he was able to pay his way through Cambridge and earn a degree in forestry.

He was then hired as a forester by the British Colonial Office and traveled to an outpost in the country of Kenya in eastern Africa.

In the highlands of Kenya, he saw that the soil was eroding away and the land turning into desert where the trees had been destroyed. He consulted with the chiefs and elders of the Kikuyu people and then shared an idea. The tribes always held a dance when they began something important – Richard called for a “Dance of the Trees.” Of the over three thousand Kikuyu warriors who took part, he helped select fifty warriors to protect the trees that would be grown to heal the land. This was the beginning of the Men of the Trees.

Five of the first fifty Watu wa Miti ( Men of the Trees)

As the work unfolded, nine thousand tribesmen joined in planting and tending the trees. In a special ceremony, the leaders of the people made him a member of the Kiama, the council of elders. He is the only white man ever to be honored in this way.

Once, when a Colonial official tried to strike a Kikuyu farmer, Richard risked his career by stepping in between the two and taking the hard blow on his own shoulder. Richard’s African friends never forgot this act of courage.

He left Kenya for three months to take part in tree planting in Tanganyika. He returned to discover that a Colonial official had destroyed eighty thousand seedling trees that the Kikuyu workers – volunteer Men of the Trees – had raised by hand. The trees had been eliminated to make a tennis court.

He was distressed by this wasteful act. However, with the help of Chief Josiah Njonjo, who had been his interpreter at the first Dance of the Trees, he conveyed to the Men of the Trees a plea for a new beginning. As a result, the warriors in the region grew over nine million new trees that year.

Some of the Europeans living in Africa didn’t agree with Richard’s views and disliked him. They complained that he was "too involved with primitive people" and that he was a troublemaker for speaking out against certain tree cutting plans and practices. He never hesitated in his work – he had an abiding love and respect for the indigenous people of Africa and his belief in the importance of trees was also unshakeable. For the rest of his life he never quit striving to preserve old-growth forests and to increase the earth’s tree cover.

Richard knew that the loss of forest cover was a worldwide problem. He returned to England and began the Men of the Trees there too. He submitted newspaper articles and spoke on the radio and at a diversity of gatherings to inform the public of the crucial role trees held in the ecosystem. The Men of the Trees grew to advance tree conservation in one hundred and eight countries.

While in England in 1924, Richard encountered the Bahá’í Faith, a religion he went on to embrace and then serve for the rest of his life. Its main teaching is the oneness of humankind.

He returned to Africa, to the country of Nigeria, and worked and traveled several years there to help conserve the forests. He was the first European to learn the languages, customs, beliefs and stories of some of the different tribes whose territories he lived in and studied.

His Life
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