"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago" ~ Chinese Proverb

This fall it has been exciting to relaunch our Trees for Sacred Places program. Trees are going up everywhere!  These efforts are part of the plan for growing 5 million trees in Maryland by 2031 -  an ambitious effort to reduce carbon in the atmosphere and combat climate change.  The plan includes a goal to focus tree planting in underserved urban communities in an effort to also reduce urban heat island effects, where higher temperatures occur as a result of limited natural landscapes.  

Several IPC partners and their green teams have already stepped up to join this effort.  In October, green team leaders at Mount Olive United Methodist Church, helped coordinate several volunteers to get 22 trees in the ground.  They got help from our technical partner, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, whose team pre-dug the holes for the trees. Since then, teams have planted more than 100 additional trees at Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom and Jonah House in Baltimore City; Saint Ignatius Catholic Church in Oxon Hill; and Saint Camillus Catholic Church in Silver Spring. Some of these plantings were supported by crews from our other technical partner on this project, Casey Trees, who have both provided the trees and helped the congregations to identify the best locations for the trees on their properties. And this is just the beginning, 20 more IPC partner congregations have signed a commitment to plant more trees by the spring of next year.

We're hoping to expand this effort to many more sites in the coming years. If your congregation or community is interested in planting trees on your congregational grounds or the surrounding neighborhood, please let us know by emailing [email protected]. All sites, no matter how big or how small, are eligible. If you are located in the red areas on this CBT Urban Trees map, and would like more trees on your property please complete the interest form here. 

To learn more about the benefits of trees in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, tune in to this recording of our Faithful Green Leaders Learning Lab webinar.