CINCINNATI -- Want to provide a meaningful gift that will last long after the holiday season, offering health, environmental and aesthetic benefits to the citizens of our area for years to come? Taking Root, a local reforestation program, has your solution: Give the gift of a tree this holiday season.
Through the Taking Root Tree Fund, each dollar of your donation represents one tree seedling that will be made available to support tree-planting events in the coming year. Your gift can also help purchase larger trees ($100 for a six-foot tall tree) which will “take root” more quickly, helping to further offset some of the current loss of our local canopy due to invasive insects such as the emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle and other threats.
“This is a great gift for a teacher, grandparent or anyone who has an appreciation for nature’s beauty. It’s a legacy gift that benefits many people other than the direct recipient,” said Scott Beuerlein, chairman of Taking Root. “Through the Tree Fund, you will leave a positive impact on thousands of people throughout the Greater Cincinnati area well beyond this holiday season.”
To gift a tree through Taking Root’s Tree Fund, you simply need to go to the Taking Root website here to make a payment through PayPal.
Following confirmation of a donation, they will provide purchasers with an electronic certificate to be forwarded to the recipient for donations received before Dec. 21.
“Experts estimate we could lose up to 40 percent of our local tree canopy in the next five years," Beuerlein added. “Through your contribution, we can help offset this loss and reach our goal of planting two million trees by 2020.”
For more information on Taking Root, please visit its website here.
Taking Root is an initiative to replace, retain and expand trees in the eight-county Greater Cincinnati. Partners include Boone County Arboretum, Cincinnati Nature Center, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Davey Resource Group, Great Parks of Hamilton County, The Green Partnership for Greater Cincinnati, The Green Umbrella, Hamilton County Planning and Development Department, Natorp’s, The Nature Conservancy in Ohio, Northern Kentucky Urban and Community Forestry Council, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments and Oxbow, Inc. The campaign is ramping up to educate the public on the need for trees, to value and care for them, and to plant them — by the millions.
