Planting trees is a wonderful way to never forget those we’ve lost to Covid. We can also plant trees to keep those who need our support in our thoughts, especially those suffering from long term Covid related medical conditions. Essentially, there’s never been a more important time to plant trees than right now. With massive wildfires scorching millions of acres of forests across the western United States, to the ongoing need to cut atmospheric carbon levels in order to reduce global warming, trees are now more important than ever for sustaining human life on our planet. The only way our children will have mature trees tomorrow, is if we plant seedlings today.

The recent IPCC Report released in August 2021 that was a CODE RED for humanity, as well as the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland in January 2020, hundreds of nations across the globe committed to planting a trillion trees by 2050. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2016 ranking, the United States is 33.93 percent forest; that’s down from a 50 percent forest in 1620 when the first European settlers arrived. Sadly, prior to Davos, the United States was hovering well below its potential for tree planting despite the amount of space we have to plant trees and nature, as well as the innovative methods we can adopt in our urban centers.

Canada on the other hand…

…has been a top performer, planting 500 million trees in 2019. During this same year, the US National Forest Foundation planted 5 million trees, nearly double their 2018 total, which is aggressive, but a long way off Canada’s 500 million. There doesn’t appear to be a national data base keeping track of US totals that incorporates tree planting in local communities on private property, so the total number of trees planted in US for any given year is difficult to calculate. But what we do know, is that the US chopped down 36 million trees in 2019, and in 2020, in addition to the millions of leveled trees we ax on an annual basis, we lost 30 billion mature trees in the West Coast wildfires, which is staggering.

Ethiopia is a 2020 tree planting champion, succeeding at putting 350 million trees in the ground in 12 hours this past July 2020. The US needs to rush to catch up. In most states, trees can only be planted in the ground a few months of the year. There’s a window in both the spring and the fall. It’s vitally important we take advantage of each and every opportunity. Homeowners have to be the drivers of our national tree planting efforts if we’re going to succeed.

Planting a tree to remember someone whose life was cut short — whether that be from covid, gun violence, wildfires and other natural disasters, a car accident, cancer, and multiple other tragedies — or is still alive but but going through a very difficult time, is a great way of showing empathy and letting others know a loved one is being thought of regularly. It also motivates us into action. This wonderful way of keeping spirits alive and communities full of hope, helps families and communities heal while at the same time saving the planet. 

Check out our 2021 GreenUp Agenda and Follow Our Progress

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Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. —Warren Buffett

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