PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — There’s a super-efficient, massively effective way to filter the air, filter water, support wildlife, improve mental health, improve flood control, increase real estate value, conserve energy, and offset a raft of environmental impacts simultaneously.
Plant a tree.
The return on investment is well-documented — plus, all the cool kids are doing it, right?
The New Jersey Tree Foundation’s spring tree planting is well underway. It has settled more than 100 new trees along Haddon Heights streets this month and dozens in Camden’s Cramer Hill Nature Preserve. The work requires volunteers’ muscles, and they’re actively looking for help to plant 40 trees in Gloucester City on Saturday.
(Find more tree-planting events in Pennsylvania and New Jersey through global reforestation nonprofit One Tree Planted.)
Entomologist and University of Delaware professor Douglas Tallamy encourages people to think about their yards as wildlife preserves, where trees serve as major anchors. His new interactive website invites users to chart their own planting efforts toward biodiversity with others across the nation.
Tallamy’s latest book about oak trees illustrates the benefits trees bring to any landscape. One excerpt reads, “A yard without oaks is a yard meeting only a fraction of its life-support potential.”
And, seeds are easily available and free — just scoop out a hole in a spot with a lot of soil volume and space to spread, and drop an acorn in.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection actually welcomes donations of viable acorns for planting from the public. If you have enough mighty oaks in the making, you can share their bounty at one of the state collection sites.
Earth Day
Hundreds of eco-conscious citizens will be donning sneakers instead of gardening gloves on Saturday for the Clean Air Council’s 40th annual Run for Clean Air, the greater Philadelphia region’s largest Earth Day celebration. It’s virtual again this year, and runners can still register.
“Right now, we have more than 300 people registered,” said Clean Air Council social media director Katie Edwards. “As always we have a huge contingent from the greater Philadelphia area, but we have people signed up all across the state and even the country. People also tend to sign up the day before or right before they run, so we expect even greater numbers than we know of right now.”
From its humble beginnings at Wissahickon Valley Park, the Run for Clean Air event has attracted thousands of runners. The virtual 10K and 5K races give runners the freedom and flexibility to safely participate from anywhere they like while still showing their support for the Clean Air Council and a healthier environment.
“It’s incredible to see the enthusiasm and excitement people have for running the race virtually,” Edwards enthused. “People adapt quickly as the world evolves around them, and we’ve seen that firsthand in the way that everyone makes this race their own. We see it in the way runners find a perfect route by their home to run the race on or make this a family event or healthy competition with friends, virtually train for the race with their trainer on FaceTime, or even just use the race as the reason that all the people working from home get out of their homes and start working out again for a good cause.”
The race this year is sponsored by Toyota Hybrids and other loyal sponsors that underwrite the still-sprawling virtual project, which includes perks for runners. Participants get an eco-friendly race T-shirt and a re-useable medal that also serves as a Bluetooth speaker.
Clean Air Council is urging runners to run their race and submit their time on April 17 to make it onto their live race day results broadcast. Go. Do!