Arbor Day is a great time to act and benefit more from trees.
We Plant it Forward is holding an Arbor Day Festival on April 24, 2022, 2:30-6pm, sandwiched between Earth Day on April 22 and the 150th anniversary of National Arbor Day on April 29th. The festival will celebrate with food trucks and live music from Kate Rhudy, Pink Beds and One Tribe. The Triangle Native American Society will open the festival with a land acknowledgement. Emcee, Wade Minter, the Carolina Hurricanes announcer, will be there to carry us through all the festivities. Join the fun at Dorothea Dix Park, 1030 Richardson Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Environmental Educators from nonprofit organizations like Toward Zero Waste, CleanAire, and South Wake Conservationist and more will be there to teach DIYways to be environmentally sustainable. Retail vendors like Savon de Jill, Bright Black and Solid Roots are among the retail vendors selling natural and environmentally sustainable products. Come see demonstrations on proper tree planting and how to make a rain barrel. Scrape Exchange and Arts Together will have crafts for young and old alike.
We Plant it Forward will be giving away tree seedlings and urges Raleigh residents, municipalities, businesses, and developers to honor Arbor Day and Earth Day by preserving and planting trees in their communities to further benefit the community’s economy, environment, and health.
Find more Arbor Day Festival information, visit weplantitforward.org/arbor-day-festival.
“Each year North Carolina urban trees provide our state with $6.2 billion in community-wide environmental benefits, and add $1.9 billion to property values,” said NC Urban Forest Council Executive Director Leslie Moorman. “The best way to maintain and improve that number is to preserve and plant urban trees across North Carolina.”
In addition to providing environmental and property value benefits urban trees also:
- Improve social inequities. Planting trees in redlined communities helps reverse discriminatory policies and creates fresh air, clean drinking water, and cooler neighborhoods; which in turn lowers utility costs, crime, and heat-related illnesses.
- Reduce crime. Property crimes are less frequent in residential neighborhoods when there are trees in right-of-ways and more abundant vegetation around houses and buildings.
- Improve physical and mental health in children and adults. Aerobic exercise, like walking, in a natural environment 20 minutes a day, three days a week, may lead to greater gains in lowering blood pressure, stress, depression, and ADD symptoms compared with exercise in non-green urban settings.
- Increase retail business. Research proves shoppers will travel farther, stay longer, and spend 9-12% more in retail areas with high quality trees.
- Decrease storm flooding. Urban trees absorb and filter stormwater which allows municipal systems to better handle runoff; reducing flooding, infrastructure damage, and groundwater pollution.
- Save home energy costs. Properly placed trees can reduce air conditioning by 30% and heating by 20-50%, which saves an average household $100-$250 in energy costs annually.
“The Raleigh urban tree canopy provides all the benefits that motivate people to visit, move to, and invest in our community,” said We Plant It Forward Executive Director Maggie Bailey. “We encourage Raleigh residents, businesses, and policy makers to contact our organizations and learn how they can help protect, maintain, and plant urban trees in their neighborhoods.”
We Plant it Forward, works to restore and preserve our natural environment for the benefit of future generations through hands-on activities, community engagement, and environmental education bringing harmony to all life. Programs include tree giveaways, tree planting, rain barrel workshops and environmental education. We Plant it Forward’s vision is to engage all people in creating an environmentally sustainable way of life that allows all of humanity to move toward a way of life that nurtures a thriving natural environment.
Source: Maggie Bailey, Executive Director, We Plant It Forward
