Start Planting
Mindy Maslin of
PHS Tree Tenders,
in Philadelphia,
shares her tips.
- 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. - 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. - 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.