On March 7, 2008, Pacifica 4H-ers joined 4H members from 5 other San Mateo clubs to plant the first of 1 Million Trees, the kick-off of a nationwide project conceived of by one of our pacifica 4H members (
see Oakland Tribue article). Parents and kids pitched in to dig and plant more than a dozen trees at Elkus Ranch Youth Camp, the home of our family overnight event for many years now.
The biggest hole was dug for Mill, the first and largest of the coastal redwoods planted this day.
Below is the Million Trees Home page description at the time of these trees' planting:
The 4-H Million Trees Project was conceived after a Pacifica 4-Her saw the film "An Inconvenient Truth" and the film sparked her desire to do something to help combat global climate change. The goal of this project is to mobilize the approximately 7 million 4-H youth across the U.S. to participate in this project to plant 1,000,000 trees across the nation to help reduce atmospheric CO2. Clubs outside of the U.S. are also invited to participate.
This monumental task seems feasible when it is broken down into smaller, manageable parts, including:
- Build this website at 4hmilliontrees.org, including a system to manage the tens or hundreds of thousands of communications between the 4-H clubs and 4-H units and the project.
- Build the network of 90,000 4-H clubs and units using the state, county, and local 4-H structure and existing electronic networks to quickly reach the individual clubs and units.
- Register clubs and units on this website when club and unit officers fill out the web-based form on the Registration page, and then visit arborday.org/4h to become members and receive twelve trees at $1 each. Additional trees can be purchased from Arbor Day Foundation at a reasonable cost. Alternatively, clubs and units can use their resources or obtain donations to obtain trees, planting materials, and tree supports, if needed. We ask that clubs and units adopt this project as their April community service project, and plant the trees around the weekends of Earth Day (April 19 & 20, 2008) and/or Arbor Day (April 26 & 27, 2008.)
Our vision of 1,000,000 new trees planted by 4-H youth from approximately 90,000 clubs and units across the United States means:
- Native trees add beauty and heritage to urban, suburban, and rural communities across the nation
- Trees improve local air quality
- New trees absorb runoff, and bring groundwater to the surface
- Shade from these trees can help cool buildings, reducing air conditioning electricity needs, and eliminating pollution and carbon emissions associated with this power generation
- Offsetting greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion by absorbing and sequestering about 48,000,000 million pounds of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year
- New trees make up for trees lost to deforestation worldwide 7,000,000 4-H youth learn they can personally change the world 4HMT hopes to empower a generation of leaders by teaching them they can make a difference both individually and as a group.
We want you to learn more about this important project. Please view all pages of this website.
- If you are a 4-Her interested in this national community service project, go to the Registration page and please join us
- If you are a potential donor, please support us
- If you want to help us publicize the project in the press or over the airwaves, and please contact us
The sooner we can build a network of participating 4-H Clubs, and raise awareness of the power of youth, the faster we can start to improve the quality of life in our cities and towns, capture carbon from the atmosphere, and begin to make a difference for our planet.
We'd love to have you be part of our vision.
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