Avatar Home Tree Initiative Plants Over 1 Million!
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In case you haven't already heard, neither natural disasters nor a depressed international economy could thwart the dedication of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (TCFHE), Earth Day Network (EDN) and 17 partner organizations around the world in achieving the goals of the Avatar Home Tree Initiative.
Despite the challenges faced in 2010, over 31,000 individuals planted 1,006,639 trees on six continents, creating immediate benefits forf tens of thousands of families and long-term benefits for the global environment.
Congratulations to all of our partners: Million Trees NYC, Friends of the Urban Forest (San Francisco), Tree People (Los Angeles), SOS Mata Atlantica (Brazil), Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (Sierra Gorda Ecological Group, Mexico), Bosque Sustentable A.C. (Sustainable Forest, Mexico), Tree Canada, Plantemos Para el Planeta (Spain), The Woodland Trust (U.K.), Stichting wAarde (The Earth Value Foundation, The Netherlands), Kinome' (France & Senegal), ClubE (Germany), Vereniging voor Bos in Vlaanderen (Organisation for Forests in Flanders, Belgium), Municipality of San Giovanni in Persiceto (Italy), Skogen i Skolan (Forest in School, Sweden), Trees for the Future (Haiti) and Landcare Australia.
For more information on our terrific partners, please check out: http://www.earthday.org/partners
The 2006 fire on Grootbos in
The 2006 fire on Grootbos in South Africa (www.grootbos.com) destroyed not only Forest Lodge but also a large area of the ancient milkwood forest behind the lodge. The fire struck the forest at mid-day, having burnt for more than a week under extremely hot and dry conditions. The result was that a large portion of the forest, including many ancient trees was destroyed by the fire.
The Future Trees Project aims to rehabilitate this area as well as other forest areas on Grootbos that have been impacted by human activities in the past. Early aerial photographs have provided a clear indication of changes to the forest edges as a result of human impacts, primarily wood cutting and exotic tree invasions over the last eighty years. Appropriate indigenous trees (white milkwood, white stinkwood, pock ironwood and wild olive) have been grown by the Green Futures students to be used for the rehabilitation of these areas. Visitors to Grootbos can support the rehabilitation of these ancient milkwood forests as well as contribute to the work of the Foundation by getting their hands dirty and planting a tree.
As an organisation, family or individual one can make a contribution of R350 to the Foundation for a tree. This covers the cost of planting with compost and ongoing care of a 20-litre (5 year old) tree. The Foundation employs Green Futures graduate, Promise, on a full time basis to care for the nearly 1000 indigenous trees that have thus far been planted as part of this program. When planting a tree you receive a tree planter’s certificate, are listed on the TREE PLANTERS PAGE (http://www.grootbos.com/en/the-grootbos-foundation/future-trees/tree-pla...), and the locality of your tree is recorded and mapped using a GPS so that you can keep an eye on it from your home on Google Earth.