As a young man, Elzea Bufier owned a small farm. His life revolved around his land, his wife, and his only son. He worked hard as a farmer and was quite content with his simple, peaceful life. Tragically, he lost his son and then his wife to sudden illnesses.

Unable to bear the thought of staying on his farm without them, he decided to search for a place of solitude. With only his dog and a small flock of twenty or so sheep to keep him company, he walked for weeks far into the high country.

Finally, he came to a spot as desolate as any in France. As he looked for a place to set up his home, he saw occasional evidence that people had once been nearby. A few scattered ruins of ancient stone dwellings, long ago deserted, dotted the barren landscape.

It was in one of these ancient buildings, set off by itself, that he decided to live. The nearest village was more than two days' walk away. In complete isolation he set about shepherding, determined to live a quiet and peaceful life.

Though deeply hurt by the loss of his family, Elzea was a good and giving man at heart. He decided that in his own quiet way, he would dedicate himself to somehow making a difference. As he looked about at the barren and desolate highlands, he formed the opinion that the land was drying for lack of trees. Only an occasional white oak stood in that forlorn landscape as far as the eye could see. He set out to remedy the bleakness of the land by planting trees.

As he herded his little flock throughout the day, he collected the acorns he found from the few sparse oaks that dotted the countryside. Each night after eating his soup, he meticulously selected the very best one hundred acorns and set them in a small pail of water. The next day he carried them with him as he walked with his sheep.

For a walking stick he used an iron rod, about the circumference of his thumb and the height of his shoulder. When he found a suitable place for the sheep to rest, he left them in the care of his dog and hiked up a little higher into the hills. There he stopped and, with great care, dug a hole with his iron rod and planted a little acorn.

In this way, each day Elzea Bufier planted one hundred new oak trees. Beginning in the year 1910, in three years he had planted one hundred thousand trees. Of these, only twenty thousand would root and sprout. And of these twenty thousand, only half would survive and grow into tall oaks. Yet, even with this small percentage of his efforts producing the results he sought, ten thousand oak trees appeared where before there had been nothing.

When the First World War began, Elzea was fifty-five years old. His simple, active life had kept him strong andhealthy. He was unaffected by the war, high above the fighting and destruction. He kept on with planting, day after day, year after year.

In time, Elzea decided to stop herding sheep, because the lambs trampled on his baby trees. Instead, he began to raise bees, for they would help to spread the new and wondrous life his tireless efforts were creating. As the war came to a close, several of the oaks now stood taller than he.

On his very rare trips to the distant village for supplies, he traded his honey for beechnuts and birch seeds. He had spent so much time wandering over the land that surrounded his home that he had come to know the spots where subterranean water flowed close to the surface of the ground. He believed that beech and birch trees would flourish in these spots. He was right.

Elzea Bufier continued his quiet planting until the day he died. For thirty-seven years he had planted at least one hundred trees each day. As his trees grew, nature amplified his miracle. The wind lifted and deposited more seeds which, in turn, drew more moisture and nourished the soil. Where once there had been only desolation, now there stood a magnificent forest with flowing steams, teeming with new life.

The French Forestry Bureau set aside much of this miracle forest as protected lands. In place of the deserted ruins, new villages with children, schools, and prosperous farms sprang up. By the time Bufier died peacefully in 1947, more than ten thousand people had moved into his forest.

Elzea Bufier gave the world a great gift. His special brand of service was very quiet and unpretentious. He wanted no credit. But his unrelenting enthusiasm and tireless industriousness created a virtual miracle. He lived and died with the peace of mind of knowing he had given his best.

The story of Elzea Bufier demonstrates the immense impact a single individual can create through unfailing enthusiasm and consistent industriousness.