PLANTING TREES: THE ULTIMATE ACT OF THINKING GLOBALLY & ACTING LOCALLY
Every year, we celebrate Earth Month the best way we know how: by working together with our amazing planting partners + brand partners to empower thousands of volunteers around the world to improve their local communities. They’re planting trees, pulling invasive species, cleaning up litter, establishing community gardens and more. And like a fine wine (or a planted tree seedling 😉), our Earth Month celebrations get better and better every year!
This year, an estimated 8,700 volunteers got their hands in the dirt and planted over 30,000 trees, 5,000 plants and 2,000 shrubs at 110+ events in 25 countries around the world to celebrate Earth Day and Earth Month!
Special thanks to our amazing reforestation partners, and to our Earth Month sponsors alexa, Planet Oat, outer, Kyndryl and Match Group. Our Earth Month events wouldn’t have been possible without you!
HERE’S WHERE WE PLANTED TREES THIS EARTH MONTH!
From California to Indonesia, Thailand to Rwanda, in forest reserves, community parks and watersheds big and small — everywhere we looked, we found affirmation of why we do the work we do. Volunteers from all walks of life picked up planting shovels and worked together to restore their local environments, one tree at a time. In a changing climate, much is uncertain but some things never change, like the dedication showed by volunteers, the satisfaction of planting trees, and the shared drive to leave this planet a little better than we found it.
THE ONE TREE PLANTED TEAM GOT our HANDS IN THE DIRT
Never one to miss out on the fun, the One Tree Planted team gathered together for the first time in a few years to celebrate in the best way possible: by getting our hands in the dirt at San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Park! Together with 100 volunteers (including some of our awesome partners), we restored 4 acres of land by planting 75 trees, 50 shrubs and 25 plants, cleaning up trash, removing invasive species, and more. The tree species planted included Camillas, Cyprus, Queagrs, Prucar, Quercus Agrifolia, Shishi Gashira, Yuletide and Nuccios Bella Rossa.
The plantings took place in four sections of Golden Gate Park, including Stow Lake, the area around Skatin Place (newly renovated skating park), Conservatory Valley, and the John McLaren Rhododendron Dell. It’s always a joy to break a sweat and get our hands in the dirt for Mother Nature, but this year felt extra special!
While in the bay area, we also paid a visit to a reforestation site at the beautiful Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, where our partners planted trees for forest fire recovery!
and our fleet grew!
That’s right! We’re proud to grow our fleet with a Mobile Seed Bank generously donated by Terraformation, and two all-electric ioniq5’s generously donated by Hyundai.
Our new Mobile Seed Bank will be deployed in California to help our on the ground reforestation partners address supply issues by increasing their seed collection and processing capabilities. This will increase the number of native plants and tree seed that they can collect, which will in turn help ensure the long-term survival of rare plants. The Mobile Seed Bank will also offer an interactive, hands-on experience for our partners and volunteers, as well as providing training for youth who are interested in working in the nursery or seed collection space!
Our two Hyundai ioniq5’s, fondly named Maple and Douglas, will be strategically located on the east and west coast and will allow us to travel to reforestation sites, meet with partners and more! Equipped with an 800-volt battery system for ultra-fast charging, this ground-breaking electric CUV (crossover utility vehicle) is built on a cutting-edge new platform that marks a major technological milestone in EV expansion.
We’re so grateful to both Hyundai and Terraformation for their generous donations, which will help us jump the curve on reforestation for the benefit of nature and communities across North America!
Oh, and we helped break a world record!
Alongside other groups and organizations, the One Tree Planted team and a handful of our partners woke up at 4:30 am to help achieve a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive plants watered on Earth Day. We called in from San Francisco, and were featured on NBC’s @todayshow as part of the initiative, which succeeded in watering 799 plants!! 🙌🌏🌿
here are just a few individual event highlights:
Merasa Village, Indonesia
In Indonesia’s Merasa Village, 76 volunteers (including 40 youth) planted 1,100 native trees to restore land along the buffer zone of the Bawan River. Planting these native species will restore soil structure and health after degradation and forest fires, improve water quality, protect aquatic habitat, and more! The next day, volunteers from the government and other organizations were welcomed with traditional dances from the indigenous Oayak tribe, and planted trees representing their respective areas.
5 different tree species were planted, including Rattan, Durian, Beringin, Rambutan and Ulin — and the planting area was inaugurated as the “Forest of Hope”.
Berkeley Tuolumne Camp, California
In Groveland, California, 50 volunteers (including 10 youth) planted 1,000 sugar pine tree saplings to restore land in the Berkeley Tuolumne Camp. Planting trees here will restore restore land degraded by forest fires, reduce air pollution, improve climate change resilience, improve community health and wellness, protect valuable recreational opportunities and more!
Sugar pine trees can grow up to 195 ft tall and are the largest pine trees in the world. Often called the ‘king of the conifers’, their height at maturity is surpassed only by a few other coniferous species (including redwoods). And their cones, which can grow up 19.75 inches long, are the largest in the world. These giants are endemic to the mountains of California and Oregon in the United States, as well as Baja California in Mexico.
Rulindo District, Rwanda
In the Rulindo District of Rwanda’s Nyirangarama sector, 37 volunteers (30 youth) planted 1,000 trees to improve soil stability, restore areas damaged by forest fires, increase climate change resilience, improve biodiversity habitat, reduce air pollution and more!
The species planted included eucalyptus, alnus acuminate, sedrela serata, calliandra and greviliea robusta.
Mwanza Region, Tanzania
In Tanzania’s Mwanza region, 2,050 volunteers planted 2,000 trees at 6 schools (Sanjo and Nyangh’omango Secondary Schools + Isela, Kagera, Itende and Usagara Primary Schools) through a program that gave 2,000 youth 1 tree each to plant and maintain over time. Our partner coordinated with 6 heads of schools and 3 governmental officials to implement the program. As the trees grow, they’ll engage youth, restore biodiversity habitat and promote environmental justice.
The species planted were trichilia ematica, mango, guava, pine, grivella, orange, mjohoro, avocado and pawpaw.
Ban yuan mai, Jemilang, Mueang Satun, Thailand
In Ban yuan mai, Jemilang, Mueang Satun, Thailand, 70 volunteers (including 20 youth) planted 2,000 black mangrove trees to restore coastal habitat at an abandoned shrimp farm.
Mangroves play a vital role in our tropical and subtropical ecosystems. Found where the ocean meets land, they protect our coastlines, keep our beaches beautiful, restore biodiversity in marine ecosystems, and store 5-10X more carbon than land ecosystems.
Special thanks to all of the awesome volunteers that got their hands in the dirt this month, and to our partners on the ground, who made these plantings happen!
PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENTS
In addition to having 110+ successful tree planting events, several of our tree-loving business partners shared initiatives, milestones and commitments, and we couldn’t be more proud of what we’re accomplishing, together!
While we couldn’t possibly list them all, we wanted to share a few highlights from the month of April. Starting the month off strong was Busch Beer’s Save a Tree, Pee in a Busch, which was a really fun campaign that donated all of the proceeds from their limited edition Save a Tree, Pee in a Busch kits to One Tree Planted.
Popular clean skincare brand The Outset announced that they would be focusing on minimizing their carbon footprint by donating 10% of April sales (up to $25,000) to our wildfire restoration projects in Northern California. We also got together with co-founders Scarlett Johansson and Kate Foster at NYC’s Highbridge Park, where we planted 65 native trees along the Harlem River!
DB Woodside of Buffy The Vampire Slayer fame talked about his lifelong love for trees and forests, and encouraged his fans to join him in supporting reforestation.
Some of our team joined Sam Heughan, founder of My Peak Challenge and actor in the popular Outlander series in Scotland to plant 1,000 fruit trees as part of the annual My Peak Challenge Gala (in addition to the organization’s ongoing support).
discovery+ announced that they joined our Million Tree Challenge. For every new subscriber during the month of April, they planted 1 tree with us (up to 10,000 trees)!
A special partnership with 4ocean meant the launch of a limited-edition Earth Day Bracelet that donated $1 for every bracelet sold to One Tree Planted’s mangrove restoration project in Guatemala.
Amazon shared their “Alexa, grow a tree” campaign, which enables customers to support reforestation and donate $1 USD to One Tree Planted when they command their Alexa-enabled device to grow a tree. In addition to the campaign, Amazon committed to donating $1 million from April 2022 until December 2022 to make a global impact for reforestation — with a focus on surface mine restoration in Guatemala, forest fire restoration in California, fruit tree planting in India, and orca whale protection in the Pacific Northwest.
House of Marley, continued their ongoing support of us and highlighted that each purchase from their store donates $1 USD, with the goal of planting 42,000 trees in 2022!
Tarte Cosmetics focused on Amazon Rainforest reforestation by donating $1 USD from all Maracuja Juicy Lip Balm & Maracuja Juicy Lip Plump purchases made from during April 18-24. Stitch Fix celebrated Earth Day by donating 100% of net proceeds made from their Earth Day cloud-wash collection to One Tree Planted. Even Vancouver International Airport got in on the Earth Month action by donating 1 tree for every $150 CAD spent at the Vancouver Duty Free store between April 20-27 in support of our reforestation projects in Ontario and Alberta.
Thank you to all of our amazing business partners who help us get trees in the ground on Earth Day and every day. We’re proud to work together with you to restore forests across the globe, one tree at a time!
Missed your chance to participate this Earth Month? Not to worry! You can sign up at any time to become a business partner, and in the meantime, you can still help us get trees in the ground! 🌿