Good News! 9 Positive Environmental Stories from March 2021

We all heard the buzz about how Reddit users rallied together and invested in GameStop stocks. While the whole thing was quite controversial, some good has come of it! Investors are putting their gains from the mass investment towards wildlife conservation and gorillas are the big beneficiary. Over $350,000 has been contributed to a fund that will help protect gorillas. Now that's how you make money talk!

Coffee pulp! Who knew. The British Ecological Society reported that after dumping 30 truck loads of coffee pulp in degraded land in Costa Rica, a forest emerged at remarkable speed in just two years. This is not the first time studies have been done on waste for restoration. You may recall another study which included an orange juice company in which they used orange waste on a degraded pasture. Faster growth was not the only benefit reported from the coffee pulp study. They also found higher levels of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous, BES.

One Tree Planted is thrilled to announce a partnership with World Agroforestry in which 550,000 trees will be planted on smallholder farms in Divo in Central Côte d'Ivoire. The goal of this project is to work with 3,500 farmers and reintroduce some original forest trees — fruit, nut and timber — as well as a few exotic fruit-tree species, on 14,000 hectares of cocoa land over the next two years. We are honored to be part of such an impactful project! 

Plogging is a word derived from the Swedish word "Ploka" which quite literally means picking up trash while jogging. The idea was created in 2016 when an activist was going for a run and quickly became annoyed by all the trash he had to pick up on the way. If you're looking for a well rounded workout with a social impact aspect this is for you! Plogging fitness groups have even been popping up around the world!

Thanks to laser technology, the giant Redwoods of North America may be larger than we suspected! A team of scientists from University College London and the University of Maryland uses advanced laser scanning, to create 3D maps and calculate the total mass. The results suggest that the trees may be as much as 30% larger than earlier measurements suggested!

These aren't your classic colorful blocks. A company from Japan has created a new spin on the plastic blocks that are similar to the classic in shape and size. But these blocks are sustainably sourced from wood that comes from forest thinning making it a more sustainable option than little plastic pieces. The company also hopes that the earthy tones of the blocks and the idea that they are from nature will pique children's interest for the environment. 

International Women's Day was bigger and more impactful than ever this year and we’re proud to have many female-led initiatives dedicated to reforestation at the heart of our organization. In celebration of International Women's Day, One Tree Planted and Planet Women united with female smallholder farmers to plant trees, support healthy communities, and restore the environment resulting in 37,317 trees to be planted in support of gender equality focused projects.

Climate activist Edgar McGregor spent 589 days cleaning up a Los Angeles hiking trail before he felt confident that it was clear of all municipal waste. He persisted through the pandemic and extreme weather which included hail and 65 mile per hour winds. McGregor said, ""I just started picking up one day because I knew it needed to be done. I knew no one was doing it, and that was that". Thanks for being a champion for the planet Edgar!

Many of us in the reforestation realm have known that scaling up nurseries would be a necessity for some time now. But it is reassuring to now have a concrete study providing the work that needs to be done. Across the states of the continental United States, there is enough land to plant forests that could sequester the equivalent of about 5% of the greenhouse gases the country emitted in 2019. But to take advantage of just half of that carbon sequestration potential over the next couple decades, the country’s tree nurseries will need to more than double production. So let's scale up and get some trees in the ground America!