100,000 Trees Appeal

Please make a donation to support this project now!

Dear Supporter

I’m writing to you today with very exciting news about our plans for 2007 – plans that will make it our most important year so far for forest restoration! In a substantial scaling up of our conservation work, we’ve set a target of planting 100,000 trees next year – more than we’ve ever done before in a 12 month period. I’m also writing because we need your help with raising £15,500 to translate this ambitious and inspiring commitment into practical reality.

Six months ago, I wrote to all our supporters, asking for donations to buy a new minibus for transporting volunteers, to ‘keep our practical work of tree planting moving forward’. I’m very grateful for the excellent response we received from so many people, which enabled us to purchase the minibus in August. With our transport needs taken care of, it’s time for us to deliver the increased practical work I wrote about. For some months we’ve been planning a large increase in tree planting for 2007, and now, excitingly, our own ideas have converged with a new global project, launched earlier this month by UNEP (the United Nations Environment Programme)!

100,000 trees in 2007 – our pledge towards the Billion Tree Campaign

Two weeks ago, on 8th November, at the Climate Change Convention talks in Nairobi, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Wangari Maathai, launched UNEP’s Plant for the Planet - Billion Tree Campaign. The campaign’s goal is for a billion trees to be planted by individuals and organisations around the world in 2007, to engage people everywhere in addressing the issue of climate change. When I met Wangari myself in 2001, I was moved by her passion for planting trees, and I’m inspired again now by this new commitment – she’s pledged her organisation to planting 2 million trees in 2007. For me, the power of commitment to a positive idea is what mobilises support for it. Rising to the challenge, we have pledged to plant 100,000 trees in 2007. Please join us, and this global campaign, by adding your commitment with a donation today!

Just imagine the difference 100,000 trees will make ... to the forest, and the planet!

A volunteer planting a tree in Glen Affric - with your help we’ll plant 100,000 in 2007! Every tree planted is a statement that simple actions do make a real and positive difference for the planet.

• The trees will be planted at a variety of sites where we work, including Glen Affric National Nature Reserve, the RSPB’s Corrimony Reserve, Forestry Commission land at Achnashellach and Glen Moriston, and also on Dundreggan. 100,000 trees will make a substantial and significant contribution to the restoration of the Caledonian Forest at these sites, and will also help towards our goal of linking up the isolated remnants of the original forest.
• The Billion Tree Campaign encourages the planting of trees in degraded natural forests and wilderness areas. With Scotland having lost 99% of the original Caledonian Forest, and the Highlands offering substantial scope for restoring wild land, Trees for Life is ideally placed to help achieve UNEP’s goal.
• Thanks to the tremendous support we’ve received from corporate supporters such as Standard Life, we have the funds to purchase 100,000 trees. Volunteer contributions and grants from Scottish Natural Heritage and trusts will cover some of the costs of the Work Weeks when the trees will be planted. However, we still need to raise £15,500 to complete the funding of the extra Weeks we’ve scheduled for the planting, and it’s to reach this target that I’m asking for your support.
• We’ve scheduled more Work Weeks than ever before – 37 in total for 2007 – in order to plant all of the trees. You can also support us by joining one or more of those Weeks yourself – for details, please see our work week booking page.

Your support is vital for us to meet this ambitious planting target!

Just imagine people all over the world, planting trees next year for the same purpose, of benefiting the planet. We’re ready to do our part in this, but we need your support to succeed. Please send a donation now to help us reach our planting target for 2007 – your gift will enable more of the 100,000 trees to grow in the Caledonian Forest!

To make a donation online to this project, please go to our order form, and thank you in advance for any contribution which you can give - your commitment will give a tremendous boost to our efforts!

Yours sincerely,

Alan Watson Featherstone
Executive Director

 

Related pages

Students from across the world launch Hundred Thousand Tree planting drive in the Highlands (Press release 9 March 2007)
Conservation charity exceeds 100,000 trees target (Press release 8th November 2007)