100KTrees Initiative
100KTrees for Humanity is an initiative where people take Climate Action into their own hands by planting 1 additional tree per person in their community. The goal is to make it easy for local groups to participate — coordinating volunteers, acquiring trees, working with city tree plans and local arborists. The sponsoring organization is 100KTrees4Humanity
100KTrees is an initiative to accelerate climate action by sharing insights into what resources are available for selecting, growing and planting trees, best practices for working with trees and volunteers and lessons learned. For each group or community to reinvent the wheel is inefficient.
A fuller description of the plan is described here:
Nearly every city in America already has a tree plan, with actual trees far short of the public plan. Surprisingly often, the number of missing trees is close to the city’s population, although it tends to be higher in socioeconomically disadvantaged and neighborhoods of color. The number of missing trees to meet the plan tends be a lower percentage of the population numbers in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods, but is still significant.
One additional tree per person in a community, planted by a volunteer, is a realistic goal that impacts air quality, public health, eco-anxiety, street level ambient temperature and a community’s quality of life. It is a goal that schools, churches, clubs and community organization can independently take on and create events around.
Urban trees deliver value that is measurable in dollars: in public health, in water purification and in climate benefits. Trees reduce the impact of rain, wind and dust particles that contribute to respiratory disease. They filter the air, reducing carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide and the better-known greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide and methane.
Professor Theodore Endreny found trees contributed $33 per year, per urban dweller, in ecosystem services, as described in the article above. Importantly, that $505 million per city did not take into account human comfort, and very little in energy savings from reducing winter winds and summer heat.
While contemporary analysis focuses on dollars, urban planners have been advocates for trees and public parks since the 18th century. These ideas gained popularity, perhaps peaking in the 1870’s, when New York used trees to reduce the risk of water-borne disease its population. Currently, 2/3 of urban drinking water is filtered by trees before reaching storm water processing facilities. Yet examples of trees being a factor in improving water purity and public health can go back to ancient history, as this 5 minute Ted-Ed video shows.
100KTrees is an initiative of 100KTrees4Humanity, which is currently seeking supporters. More information can be found here https://www.100ktrees4humanity.com/
Specifically, 100KTrees is seeking a volunteer to manage calls and manage the database for individual cites. 100KTrees4Humanity is seeking additional corporate sponsors and other volunteers.
We are initiating the 100KTrees tag here on Medium, and encourage you to clap, write, share and follow the tag.
Why does SymSoil care? We focus on solutions to environmental issues, with a focus on soil biology. Trees and plants feed, and are fed by, the soil microbiome. Healthy soil influences water, carbon sequestration and human health. SymSoil holds a patent on the first scalable approach to manufacturing Soil Food Web products as an alternative to agrochemicals.
SymSoil is a supporter of 100KTrees4Humanity, an urban tree planting project focused on action that moves us towards solutions to climate change with equity and inclusion.
