Martha_Stewart_Living_-_November_2019

Start Planting

Mindy Maslin of

PHS Tree Tenders,

in Philadelphia,

shares her tips.

1. CHOOSE THE RIGHT TREE.
   Pick a variety suited to your climate
   (like a native species), but also
   aim for one with maximum capac‑
   ity to store carbon, offer habitat,
   and lower temperatures via shade.
   To find one, plug in your zip code
   at arborday.org/shopping/trees/
   treewizard/GetZip.com. If you live
   on a street with overhead wires,
   go for smaller flowering types, like
   cherry and redbud. If you have
   space, go big. In the Northeast,
   that means linden, ginkgo, maple,
   hackberry, or oak.


2. SEEK A HEALTHY SPECIMEN.
   It should have no signs of major
   wounding, root death, or girdling
   (roots wrapped tightly around
   the trunk). Before digging, call 811,
   which connects you to your local
   call center to see if you have any
   underground utilities to avoid.
   Then follow the instructions on the
   plant tag for the best location
   and the hole’s proper depth and
   width. Make sure the beginning
   of the trunk’s root flare remains
   above ground, and that the refilled
   dirt is tamped down enough to
   eliminate air pockets that can dry
   out the roots. Last, check that
   the trunk is straight from different
   vantage points.


3. MIND YOUR SAPLING. Most trees
   take two to three years to estab‑
   lish, so tend them regularly, water‑
   ing, pruning, and staking them
   if they’ll be exposed to strong winds.
   And mulch: “It’s like chicken soup
   for trees,” Maslin says. The ideal
   formula is 3-3-3: “three inches high,
   three inches away from the trunk—
   otherwise you’ll bury the root
   flare—and three feet out, at least.”
   Mulch retains moisture, delivers
   nutrients into the soil, and prevents
   what Maslin calls “Weedwacker
   disease”—when string trimmers
   come too close to the trunk and strip
   off protective bark. “That’s a whole
   bunch of benefits for five dollars,”
   she says, referring to the average
   cost of a two‑cubic‑foot bag.

“The nice thing about this solution is that it’s

really low-tech,” Crowther said when the

study was released. The key is to start now

on a local level (planting native varieties in

your yard, protecting the trees in your com-

munity), and also donate to nonprofits that

are working to restore and expand Earth’s

tree canopy on a massive scale. These are the

organizations we’re rooting for.

DOMESTIC EFFORTS

BACKYARD WOODS A stunning 49 percent of

all forested land in the U.S. is privately owned,

and more than half of that belongs to people

who live on 10 acres or less. To develop or man-

age your own thicket, this Arbor Day Founda-

tion program offers free tip sheets on everything

arboreal, from how to thin a dense canopy

to chain-saw safety. Become a member, and

you’ll receive 10 free saplings to get started.

arborday.org/programs/backyardwoods.

PHS TREE TENDERS Around Philadelphia, social

worker Mindy Maslin is known as the “Tree

Lady.” Twenty-six years ago, she got the idea

to start a neighborhood-centric, community-

led tree-planting initiative for the Pennsyl-

vania Horticultural Society. It was the first

of its kind in the country, teaching more than

5,200 volunteers basic tree biology, care,

and pruning know-how, as well as how to

identify and respond to stressors including

dogs, weeds, and car doors. Today, the thriving

program serves as a model for cities around

the world that want to preserve and expand

their urban forests. phsonline.org/programs/

tree-tenders.

CASEY TREES In 2002, philanthropist Betty

Brown Casey set up this nonprofit after learn-

ing that the canopy in Washington, D.C., once

known as the City of Trees, had shrunk by

15 percent since the 1950s. Its strategy includes

planting an average of 14,000 trees a year,

training volunteer stewards of all ages, pro-

viding continuing-education courses, and

creating interactive online tools like the Tree

Benefit Calculator (treebenefits.com/calculator),

which gauges the environmental value of any

specific, existing tree. caseytrees.org.

THE MILLIONTREES PROJECT This East Moline,

Illinois, program is an offshoot of a river-

cleanup nonprofit that has pulled almost 10.4

million pounds of trash from local waterways

since 1998. Founder Chad Pregracke has

expanded the group’s mission to grow native

oaks from volunteer-collected acorns, tend

them in a nursery, and then transfer them to

riverbanks and watersheds. The organiza-

tion met its first million-tree milestone in

2016, and is shooting for a second one. living

landsandwaters.org.

PLANT 50 MILLION TREES On Earth Day 2018,

the National Forest Foundation launched its

campaign to do just that in U.S. forests within

five years. The need for reforestation is partly

due to pests such as the mountain pine beetle,

which has eradicated expansive stands of

trees; and the increased frequency and in-

tensity of forest fires, which researchers

calculate have become significantly more

frequent since the 1980s due to climate

change. Thanks to a matching grant from

the U.S. Forest Service, every dollar donated

equals one planted tree. nationalforests.org.

GLOBAL PUSHES

PLANT A BILLION TREES Following the slogan

“One Gift. One Tree. One Planet,” the Nature

Conservancy solicits funds to support its goal

of planting a billion trees around the world

by 2025. Donors can target their contribution

to one of four critical destinations where forests

have been severely degraded: The United States,

Brazil, China, or Mexico. plantabillion.org.

THE GREEN BELT MOVEMENT Founded in 1977

by Kenyan professor Wangari Maathai, recipi-

ent of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, GBM is a

grassroots nongovernmental organization

(NGO) that focuses on conservation and com-

munity development. Early on, Maathai saw

the fundamental link between trees and sur-

vival, and explained it frankly: “If you destroy

the forest, then the river will stop flowing,

the rains will become irregular, the crops

will fail, and you will die of hunger and star-

vation.” To date, GBM chapters have planted

more than 51 million trees in Kenya. Though

Maathai passed away in 2011, more than four

thousand affiliated community groups carry

forth her work. greenbeltmovement.org.

THE TIME FOR TREES The Arbor Day Foundation

started this initiative, which aims to plant

100 million trees and enlist five million tree

planters by 2022, the 150th anniversary of

Arbor Day. Over their lifespan, that many

could absorb eight million tons of carbon (the

equivalent of taking 6.2 million cars off the

road for a year) and remove enough air pol-

lution to fill 70,000 blimps. timefortrees.org.

MARTHA STEWART LIVING 61