![]() ![]() You need to work with an organization that owns or manages land, so you can be certain that the trees you plant will be cared for and will thrive. Make an appointment to meet the Chief Forester and explain that you are interested in their tree planting plans. Alternatively, contact the local Forestry Department in your city.Small saplings or bare root trees are relatively inexpensive. When FAWCO held its conference in Washington DC in 2000, we raised $250 at the conference to purchase a cherry tree which we planted in the Tidal Basin at the close of the conference. A specimen tree will be more expensive, and you may want to work with a nursery which will transport the tree and do the actual planting, so you would simply arrange a celebration. If you are organizing a private tree planting project, you will need to raise funds to purchase the tree(s).If one of your members owns land or knows someone locally who owns land, that may be a place where new trees would be welcome. Where will you plant trees? If your club is lucky enough to own its own clubhouse with some land attached, there may be a place for a special tree.Is there a special event or anniversary that you would like to commemorate, or do you want to plant trees for Earth Day or Arbor Day?.If your Club would like to organize a tree planting project, here are some guidelines to consider: While you are living in a foreign country, planting trees is a long-term gift to your host nation - they will be there long after you have departed. Trees add beauty to the landscape, they provide shade in summer and a windbreak in winter, they can produce nuts or fruit, and it has been shown that walking among trees, or even just looking at trees from your window, reduces stress. Centuries ago, the forest was regarded as mysterious and dangerous, which it was: think of Grimm’s Fairy Tale stories such as Hansel and Gretel. Trees and forests figure in poetry and in folklore. In many cultures, trees are planted when a child is born, to celebrate a graduation, an engagement or marriage, or to remember a loved one. There is great symbolism associated with planting trees. Restoring the forest cover is one of the most cost-effective and logical ways we can counteract climate change. In the process we have lost untold species of plants and animals that were unknown to science. ![]() Over the millennia, human activity, by clearing trees for agriculture, farming, mining, industrialization and creating cities, has reduced forest cover by 80% (World Resources Institute). Trees provide habitat for multiple species of birds, insects and other animals, they prevent soil erosion, they cool the land and absorb carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen and water vapor. Britain was densely forested until the Romans arrived and laid out their roads and famously, a squirrel could cross the United States through the trees without descending to the ground. ![]() We know that, in antiquity, forests covered large areas around the Mediterranean including North Africa. If your club is considering organizing a tree planting project of your own, here are some thoughts and guidelines which we hope will be helpful and encouraging.įorest and woodland is the earth’s natural cover everywhere except in inhospitable places, such as high mountains, ice caps and sandy or rocky desert. ![]() Other FAWCO Clubs planted trees in those days, AWC Zurich and AWC of the Taunus among them, and in Morocco, AIWC Casablanca, working with the Departement des Eaux et Forêts and local villagers, helped create the FAWCO Millennium Forestin the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. Now, twenty-five years later, the small saplings that were planted in those years have grown and transformed what had been an open landscape, bereft of trees, into dense forest. These planting events brought together volunteers from the American expatriate community along with local Belgian residents and people from many other countries living in Belgium. During the 1990s, the Environment Committee of the American Women’s Club of Brussels, whose clubhouse is located across the road from the Forêt de Soignes, worked together with the Belgian Forestry Department to organize a number of annual tree plant-a-thons. It was a shocking demonstration of the force of nature. In the Forêt de Soignes, the urban forest outside Brussels, tall beech trees lay scattered like skittles. On October 19, 1987, a violent storm swept through southeast England and Belgium, felling hundreds of venerable trees and leaving a path of destruction in its wake. ![]()
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