Going into the Gift Giving Season- what do you give someone who has everything? What can you do to help your friends and relatives get out of the conspicuous consumption mode and into the Green and Save mentality. Why not give them a Gift card from Plant Your Tree a very easy to use program, just click and sign up. Not only that, no waste of time, gas and expense buying gifts- save on your carbon footprint!
I Just Gotta Tell Ya
- For every tree planted allows 2 people to breathe clean air for a lifetime.
- A tree absorbs 48 lbs of CO2 per year.
- 500 trees counteract the negative environmental effects of one car for one year (source: The Nature Conservancy in the US).
- Properly placed trees can lead to nearly 60% savings on daytime air conditioning. The evaporation from one tree can produce the cooling effect of 10 room size air conditioners running for 24 hours/day.
- Hospital patients with a view of trees out their window recover faster and with fewer complications than patients without such views.
- 343 trees in a kilometer square decreases asthma rates by 29% in young children (source: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health).
- Trees use nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium – byproducts of city living – which can pollute our streams.
- In 50 years, one tree generates $31,250 worth of oxygen, provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycles $37,500 worth of water and controls $31,250 worth of soil erosion (source: US Forest Service).
- Trees provide habitats for species
- Trees stabilize soil and prevent erosion.
Other Tree Planting Gift Resources
- Trees For the Future
- Dolphin Blue
- Arbor Day
- The Green Balance (UK)
- Tree Givers
Another great tree planting organization is Trees for the Future. This weekend, beginning on October 17th, my theatre, Olney Theatre Center is presenting Tree Boy, a play designed to teach children about the importance of protecting the environment. As part of that event we are having an eco-friendly silent auction during the weekend’s performances. Olney Theatre Center will be donating a portion of the profits from that auction to Trees for the Future, an agroforestry resource center, working with people to improve livelihoods and restore degraded lands to sustainable productivity through planting beneficial trees.
Thanks for the post! Eco-friendly gifts are an innovative way to help contribute to the environment. Having a green surrounding is pleasing to the eye and also helps to have a healthy lifestyle. Conservation of natural resources like water is essential too. Check http://j.mp/x69cE and save gallons of water!
Conserving our current supply of trees is proven to improve our air quality. One great idea is to prevent the cutting of so many trees per year. Recycling paper has long been a practice by many people to help reduce the use of our tree supply. But what about reclaiming the lumber that has been in buildings for over 100 years and is still very useable? I believe American’s can do future generations a great service by reclaiming the lumber in old buildings, which can no longer be used for their original purpose. The lumber in these 100+ year old buildings is slow growth, tight grained, virgin lumber – lumber which was never cut before these farms were built. However, most farm owners choose the fast, easy way of disposing of these buildings. They are so often bulldozed and buried or burned. This is so sad. We will never have trees like the ones this lumber came from. These trees were allowed to grow for centuries before they were cut. Now we look at the old, gray buildings and assume the lumber is rotten and of no use. Not true. The lumber is beautiful under its worn exterior appearance. I believe American’s need more education regarding the old lumber in some of our historic barns that are being torn down by the dozens. So if we want to help the air by preserving our trees, let’s start reusing the lumber we already have in so many buildings across the country. Reclaimed Lumber: A Solid Investment in American History.