1. Choose a season to plant, either spring or fall. Do steps 2 and 3 below at least one season in advance to ensure you get your trees when you want them.

2. Choose a supplier and tree variety for your bare-root saplings. Check out the types of trees they offer. Choose a tree that is native to your area so that it will help your local ecosystem. “Native” is the keyword to search if you aren’t sure. Many groups enjoy planting hardwood (deciduous) trees like oaks and maples for their seasonal punch and wildlife benefits. Most seedlings cost about $1-4 per tree. Green teams and other participants are often excited to donate and help cover costs. A few suggested suppliers:

• Arbor Day Foundation
• Your state’s department of natural resources
• Chief River Nursery Company
• Cold Stream Farm

3. Check your supplier’s ordering and shipping deadlines. Order in the window that fits your project.

4. The day your trees arrive, get them ready to plant. Open your seedlings as soon as they arrive. You’ll find instructions for keeping roots moist and planting them soon. Assemble Tree Planting Kits right away (see next step).

5. Assemble Tree Planting Kits. First, gather these supplies:

• Container or bucket of water to moisten paper towels
• Stapler
• One of each for each participant:
• Gallon Ziploc
• Paper towel
• Paper copy of one-page Tree Planting Guide (add the tree type at the top of the guide)
• Paper copy of one-page Tree Growth Tracking Guide (optional)

Then assemble a Tree Planting Kit for each participant. Gently separate a single sapling from the bundle. Surround the roots with one or more dripping wet paper towels. Place the tree in a gallon Ziploc, roots down. The top of the tree should poke out of the top. Partially close the Ziploc. Staple the Tree Planting Guide to the top of the Ziploc. You’ve finished making one Tree Planting Kit! Make one for each participant. Store them in a bin or box in a shaded, cool area for up to a day. (If you’re using them, keep the Tree Growth Tracking Guides in a stack, ready to pass out with the Tree Planting Kits.)

6. Inspire participants. Help them know why trees are important. You could share (or ask participants to find and share) facts about the benefits of trees to human health, climate, and wildlife. See Facts to Share and Learn More below.

7. Launch your team. Send each participant home with a Tree Planting Kit and a one-page Tree Growth Tracking Guide (optional). Students can use the growth tracking guide as a summer project to bring back in the new school year. Prepare your group for some tree loss – not all seedlings survive – but the next planting season is always just around the corner.

8. Give us feedback! Please share how your project went – what worked, what was challenging, and ideas to make it better. We’re especially interested in how healthy the trees seemed when they arrived and how many survived (if you know), to help us guide leaders to reliable suppliers.

Trees are good for your health – and the health of the environment. Studies back up a long list of benefits: trees cool the air, filter urban pollutants, reduce erosion, improve water quality, provide food, improve physical and mental health, reduce air conditioning needs, save energy used for heating, increase urban biodiversity, increase property values, and store carbon and mitigate climate change.¹ Below are just a few of the many findings from scientific studies.

Trees can cool off our hot summer neighborhoods by up to 10 degrees F. Benefits peak when their collective canopy covers 40% or more of an area.²

Having 10 more trees on a city block improves how healthy we feel, comparable with a $10,000 higher income or being 7 years younger.³

11 trees on a city block can decrease the incidence of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and obesity, with an impact comparable to a $20,000 increase in annual income.

Trees absorb pollution, clearing the air, preventing respiratory disease, and literally saving lives. Scientists estimate that trees are saving more than 850 human lives a year and preventing 670,000 incidences of acute respiratory symptoms nationally, by removing four disease-causing pollutants emitted by cars, trucks, and industrial operations – nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) in diameter.⁴

Trees can also help families save money. A shade tree in the front yard can increase your home value by over $7,000.⁵ Carefully placed trees can reduce home heating and cooling costs by up to 25%.⁶

Trees reduce neighborhood crime (regardless of household income and other socioeconomic factors).⁷

Trees make us happier.⁸

Project description:

Thirty church school students planted bare-root red oak seedlings in Chevy Chase, Maryland, courtesy of the church’s Eco Action Team.

Feedback:

“William was eager to get outside and plant his red oak seedling this afternoon. We planted it in the same spot where a crooked oak tree once stood. Hopefully this one will grow straighter than the one it’s replacing!”

Interested in digging into the science behind tree’s health and environmental benefits? See the many sources listed in this article in the journal Nature.