Reforestation Projects:

Meaghan Weeden | October 21 2021 | 5 min read

Restoring Ecosystems and Engaging Communities Across the Globe

As Halloween approaches, we're gearing up with some fun spooky forest facts and more to help you get in the holiday spirit. But in the meantime, we have some exciting, non-spooky news for you! From Plant a Tree Day events happening across the globe to updates from the field in Ethiopia, England and Maine, we're so excited to share our October 2021 Reforestation Update! As always, tune in below to hear more from our awesome forest Ambassadors Kyleigh and Nicole!

Here's Our October 2021 Reforestation Update

Want to Learn More About the Projects We Featured This Month?

In Ethiopia's Amhara National Regional State, we're wrapping up our 2021 planting by getting 150,000 trees in the ground. The trees planted will rehabilitate the local environment by restoring the degraded forest landscape, improving the micro-climate, restoring ecosystem services, and more!

And while the environmental benefits of trees are awesome, these tree-planting projects will also have ongoing social impact within the local community. Reforesting and restoring this public land means that organized youth groups will gain income from the sales of seedlings, and local communities will have additional income from beekeeping and grass for livestock.

In Bethel, Maine, we are kicking off a community-based project that will plant 5,000 trees over the next several months. The project involves planting trees along the riparian zone of a native brook trout stream. The trees planted here will reduce erosion and nutrient loading into the steam during weather events. They will also help to restore an area that was clearcut by a previous owner. This will help recover many of the ecosystem services that were lost, and sequester carbon over time. 

We'll soon begin planting 12,000 trees in several project sites across Devon, England — a county around 1/4 the size of Vermont. Although it is predominantly rural, trees cover just 10% of the landscape. The tree scapes in this region have been in chronic decline for decades due to deliberate destruction, poor management and failure to replace landscape trees lost to age, damage and disease.

Unfortunately, an unstoppable wind-borne fungal disease, ash dieback, looks likely to kill at least 90% of the second most numerous species there. This is accelerating the trees’ overall decline but has also created a valuable opportunity for One Tree Planted to step in and make an impact. With the high visibility and shocking speed of ash dieback’s impacts, the possibility of a healthy long-term forest landscape is grabbing the communities' attention and encouraging change. This project is part of a larger program of growing, planting and nurturing 250,000 replacement trees.

Finally, our Plant a Tree Day campaign continues with over 60 events engaging local communities around the globe. So far, we've planted 3,000 trees and engaged over 300 volunteers with activities including tree planting, trash cleanup, invasive species removal and meadow restoration.

One of our PATD events that just happened was in Columbus, Ohio, where our partners planted trees and removed invasive species in the Olentangy Watershed. The trees planted are part of an equity and inclusion initiative to increase ecological services so that all residents have access to clean water and a resilient, biodiverse forest that helps stabilize the local climate and support the native food web! We have many more events happening over the next month and a few volunteer slots left, so check out our Plant a Tree Day page to sign up for an event near you!

Thanks for tuning in to our update, we'll see you next month! Miss us already? Check out the One Tree Planted Youtube channel for more awesome videos. And don't forget: we have plenty of other awesome tree planting projects like these. Choose a reforestation project and plant a tree today!