This Friday, April 22nd, is Earth Day, a day that mobilises 200 million people in 141 countries each year to ensure that environmental issues remain central to global politics. This year’s Earth Day theme is Trees for the Earth so we thought it was the perfect time for us to hold our pilot Roots for the Future workshop.
On Saturday, along with around 30 Brownies and Rainbows and their families, we will be planting 45 tree saplings. We have 15 wild cherry saplings, 15 hornbeam saplings and 15 beech saplings to plant. Each gets its own guard to protect it from rabbits and deer, and a stake to keep it upright.
The first Earth Day took place in 1970 and was the birth of the modern day environmental movement. This year’s theme Trees for the Earth, is the launch of their ambitious goal to plant 7.8 billion trees between now and their 50th anniversary in 2020. So our 45 saplings will be the start of a small contribution that Roots for the Future can make in helping them to deliver that goal.
X Marks the Spot
We will be planting our saplings on Birtley Estate in Bramley, South West Surrey. Birtley House is the home of Surrey Hills Enterprise and has a woodland mangagement scheme that our tree planting activities works well with. We are delighted to have the chance to plant our first glades of trees in such a beautiful setting.
The tree planting is made possible by people who have bought a sapling through our campaign TreeBay. Through TreeBay you can buy a dedication tree in the name of someone you care about. Or we can plant a tree in memory of one of your loved ones. You could even buy a “Family Tree” and in years to come, where it is planted can be a special place for you and your family to visit. We are also offering individuals and businesses the chance to buy carbon offsetting trees.
Roots for the Future is on a mission to encourage and inspire the community to participate in environmental actions that tackle climate change. We do this through tree planting workshops and hope that the Brownies and Rainbows will give us some great feedback about what worked well and what we can do to make the workshop better.
As the planting season for trees comes to an end for the spring and summer, we will use the feedback as we design more workshops. We will be designing workshops for schools, youth groups, community groups and away days for businesses, holding them in the autumn and winter. If you want us to come and do a workshop for you and your school, group or business, get in touch. In the meantime, a very Happy Earth Day to you.