Problem----We are all personally responsible for releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels for transportation (driving and flying) and home energy (electricity, heating, and cooling). This leads to global warming, which is destroying Earth's biodiversity and native ecosystems.
Solutions
1.Reduce your use of fossil fuels
2.Protect native forests as "carbon storehouses"
3.Help plant native trees in urban and deforested areas
4.Volunteer for NWP
5.Donate to NWP. Based on NWP total program costs and conservation project accomplishments since 1999, every $10 donation allows us to sponsor one Apprentice Ecologist and plant 3.1 native trees.
Benefits of planting native trees
1.They help stop global warming by reducing greenhouse gases
2.They reduce soil erosion and water pollution
3.They provide habitat for native wildlife (including songbirds)
4.They improve human health by producing oxygen and improving air quality
5.They reduce home energy needs by providing shade in summer and a windbreak in winter
Facts about the benefits provided by planting one tree
1.Absorbs over a ton of harmful greenhouse gases over its lifetime (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
2.Produces enough oxygen for four people every day (Tree Canada Foundation)
3.Provides the equivalent cooling effect of ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
4.Provides an estimated $273 of environmental benefits in every year of its life (American Forests)
We work directly with youth volunteers, including those who are at-risk and disadvantaged, throughout North America and Africa and can help you be part of the solution to global warming. We award a $500 educational scholarship each year to the winner of our Apprentice Ecologist Awards.
Officially recognized by the U.S. EPA, the Apprentice Ecologist Initiative™, our youth-based volunteer program, allows us to plant native trees at a size where they can quickly mature into large adult trees and become part of the native forested landscape. We have had great success in engaging youth volunteers (from large urban areas to small rural villages) in these tree-planting projects, which helps us keep costs to an absolute minimum. Native trees planted in North America and Africa only a few years ago are now over 7 meters (23 feet) tall!
