About

PLANT-IT 2020 OVERVIEW:

What do we do?

  1. We provide the original Dollar-Per-Tree program where we plant trees at $1 per tree throughout the US and in many countries abroad. Contributors decide where from our worldwide locations list and all trees are planted in non-harvest (no logging) locations. Visit our tree-planting benefits page to learn about how trees specifically benefit the environment and people.
     
  2. We provide city tree-planting events throughout the United States and in many other countries abroad. These can be customized to some degree.
     
  3. Our cooking stove program allows us to fundraise and distribute fuel-efficient cooking stoves to be distributed to poor families in four Central American countries and Haiti. These cookstoves use far less wood as fuel, burn much more cleanly and some of these stoves have exhausts/chimneys. Our biochar stove program assists migrant coffee workers in Costa Rica cook using all kinds of biomass as fuel with the resultant biochar often being used to increase and improve crop production.
     
  4. Our educational programs include the following:

    1. For schools across the US, we introduce them to two organizations: The Center for Environmental Education and Ideas For Us. The Center for Environmental Education is a free resource designed by teachers for teachers and administrators offering three areas: 1) Blueprint For a Green School addresses environmental health and lowering carbon emissions; 2) the Curriculum Library provides a free online resource that provides teachers with pre-made lessons based upon lesson length, student age, and other factors; and 3) the Services section transforms your educational building into a green building that then can be used as an educational platform for members and the greater community.

      Ideasforus is a youth-led, award-winning, international sustainability movement that forms chapters in K-12 schools, campuses and communities across the United States and abroad. Each chapter provides participating students with training in leadership, environmental and energy education; mentoring, and professional consultation. Chapters engage in educating and introducing proven green technologies that are cost-effective and business friendly; providing environmental education programs for educational institutions, creating community environmental events, and promoting research into promising areas of technology that are practical, workable and desirable.
      Plant-It 2020 will now be promoting Ideasforus as part of our ongoing assistance to schools and communities. The two organizations may also collaborate in the future on joint reforestation projects and possibly some areas of educational outreach. To learn more about Ideasforus, please visit their website at Udeasforus.org.

    2. For forestry specialists, Plant-It 2020 periodically funds various publications that assist certified Arborists and foresters. Please click here to download one such brochure (in PDF format) created by a partnership with the Institute for Environmental Solutions.
    3. Before and during our US tree-planting events, we try to have a reputable Arborist or Forrester give a demonstration planting and lecture. Our international tree-planting events usually have long-term training of indigenous people.
    4. For the general public, we educate individuals and businesses regarding forestry, biochar and soil topics through various means. In addition, our article on 'Scams and Deceptions in the Nonprofit Reforestation Industry' also alerts contributors as to how to contribute smartly.

About Us

Founded in 1992 by the singer John Denver, Plant-It 2020 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, private foundation that has set numerous benchmarks in the forestry industry along with many competitive advantages. Four of the many things that set us apart from other reforestation organizations include 1) No-Logging: unlike practically all other tree-planting groups, we only plant trees in non-harvest locations protected by contract with high survival rates, 2) Geographic Scope: we provide the largest number of locations worldwide for customizable city and forest tree-planting projects, 3) Business Conduct Ethics: we subscribe to the Tree-Planting Code of Ethics as well as actively educate contributors about industry scams and deceptions, and 4) founding GROW (growforests.org); an industry organization consisting of those reforestation organizations setting benchmarks and consistently performing the highest quality reforestation practices. To find out how to select a reforestation organization or simply to determine if Plant-It 2020 is best for your needs, please see our Reforestation Industry page.

Tree Planting Programs

Plant-It 2020 performs two types of tree planting programs:

  1. The 'dollar-per-tree' tree-planting program
  2. The city tree planting program

The 'Dollar-Per-Tree' (Forest) Tree Planting Program

Plant-It 2020 created the original 'dollar-per-tree' program where for every dollar we receive for this program, we plant a tree.

Key Program Points:

  • The trees are planted in non-harvest locations on public land. Trees planted by Plant-It 2020 are protected by contract from being cut down. Unless a seedling program is 'protected by contract from harvesting' you should assume that it will be harvested no matter how many verbal assurances you get to the contrary.
  • The contributor chooses the location as to where the trees get planted from our list of locations across the United States and in many countries worldwide. Plant-It 2020 offers the largest number of locations for you to choose from of any non-governmental organization (NGO).
  • The seedlings being planted were not obtained for free or at low-cost through grants or other means. They are either purchased from tree nurseries or they were grown from purchased seed in seed beds until they have reached excellent height and health for transplanting.
  • Plant-It 2020 spends on average $0.85 cents out of every dollar in this program towards each tree. 'Dollar-per-tree' imitators do not publish their expenditure for the purchase and planting of the seedling, which suggests that they spend little or nothing. This is a serious quality concern as the more you spend towards each seedling, the better it will be and survive.
  • The trees are two-to-four year old baby trees (called 'seedlings' or 'tree seedlings') being planted and not simply 'tree seeds'. In equatorial regions, fast growing tree species may be younger when planted as they grow up to ten times faster than those grown in Northern latitudes.
  • The trees are indigenous to the area, have a very high survival rate and if a maintenance plan is needed, one is set in place before the trees get planted.
  • There are no extra costs, fees, hidden charges, membership fees or so forth. One US dollar equals one tree.

Different Benefits For Different Locations:

Nearly all of our reforestation programs have a strong humanitarian focus. The 'dollar-per-tree' programs provide different benefits depending upon such things as geographical location, tree species and so forth. Our programs usually provide one or more of the following benefits:

  • Reduce human starvation by increasing crop production, and/or by providing fruits and nuts.
  • Help save an endangered species such as the Monarch Butterfly.
  • Reduce human thirst by raising the water table; and protecting the health of aquifers and rivers.
  • Bring denuded forests back to life
  • Reduce malnutrition among children by providing them with protein
  • Stop desertification (the encroachment of a desert)
  • Reduce poverty as the fruits nuts and dropped branches can be sold.
  • Reduce killer landslides as trees can anchor the soil.
  • Reduce global warming by planting fast growing trees of certain species that are fast-growing, broad-leafed, large-boled and non-harvested in equatorial regions. Soil conditions and sunlight are also important.

Be Aware: Plant-It 2020 created the first 'dollar-per-tree' program. Certain competitors have copied the 'dollar-per-tree' concept as a money-making promotion without keeping the same quality. One or more of the following are ways in which contributors can be scammed: the trees go into harvest locations (where they get cut down and profit timber companies); the trees may be gotten for free through grants and planted for free via volunteers; only a very small percentage of each dollar may go towards the tree - meaning that it may take twenty dollars to actually have a tree planted; the dollars received may replace funds already scheduled for reforestation which are now directed towards administration; the seedlings get planted in places or in ways where the survival rate is low, and so on... Plant-It 2020 never has, does not and never will perform any of these unethical actions.

The City Tree Planting Program

Plant-It 2020 has been coordinating and organizing urban tree-planting events throughout the United States and in other countries. A sponsor, usually a business, comes to us and communicates that they desire to fund one or more city tree-planting events. We find out when and where they desire to have these events take place. The next step is for us to contact the City Forrester, Parks and Recreation Department or City Arborist to determine what tree-planting events are upcoming, their attributes and so forth. The proposal is provided to the sponsor and they decide if any of them should go forward.

The above is relatively easy but where Plant-It 2020 stands-out is that we figure out how to make this event far better. Part of what we do is go the extra mile by getting a diverse group of volunteers who normally never interact with each other. A state Senator may be shoveling dirt next to both a 'youth-at-risk' and a disabled child. Next to them may be a local homeowner and her children. To the right may be some members of various community service organizations such as the Rotary and Lyons Club and to the left may be members of the church down the street. All of them just heard a talk by a certified Arborist about how to properly plant the trees along with how to maintain them and the benefits these trees will bring to the community.

This is just one example of what Plant-It 2020 does for our city tree-planting events; we get community members to physically build community together. There are many other unique things that we do for these events that are shared with our sponsors. Give us a call and see if your business would benefit by 'giving back' in this way.