This fall, the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership members will be digging success and improving local stream health by planting roughly 65,500 native trees.
By the end of this year, committed and resilient partners will have planted about 200,000 trees amid lingering pandemic limitations.
Requests for fall trees were filled in less than three weeks and 5,000 additional trees were ordered.
Collective efforts by the 200-member partnership and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources have added more than three million trees along local streams and in urban settings since the campaign launch in 2018.
“We’ve rebounded in 2021 to actually have a backlog of projects and high demand of landowners waiting for trees for next year and we are excited for that,” partnership manager Brenda Sieglitz said. The partnership is coordinated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF).
While fall trees are being planted, partners will be making site visits to landowners to plan for 2022, as over 453,000 trees have been ordered. “That is more than double the number of trees we planted in 2021 and actually more trees than we’ve planted to date in one year,” Sieglitz adds.
Sieglitz said additional landowners and locations will be needed to accommodate the 453,000 trees ordered for next year.
More than 25,000 miles of Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams are impaired by polluted runoff and the legacy of coal mining. In addition to helping to address climate change, trees are the most cost-effective tools for cleaning and protecting waterways by filtering and absorbing polluted runoff, stabilizing streambanks, and improving soil quality.
The Commonwealth’s Clean Water Blueprint calls for about 95,000 acres of forested buffers to be planted in Pennsylvania’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Adding 10 million new trees alongside streams, streets, and other priority landscapes by the end of 2025 would accelerate the Keystone State toward its clean water goals, achieving as much as two-thirds of the 95,000-acre goal.
Landowners interested in having trees for spring should contact a local partner or CBF at tenmilliontrees.org by mid-November so a site visit can be arranged.
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