You can SAVE money on your heating and cooling depending where on your property you plant trees and what you plant.

You also help clean the air by planting trees.

Tress provide homes for wildlife and those trees that die eventually help rebuild the soil.

Planting trees to help celebrate important events in your life makes a great gift too and one that gives much longer than any other type of gift.

I have planted almost two hundred trees on my property in the last 20 years. In one week many times that amount was cut and cleared for a warehouse near me. And now acres around it is just open field. You can do more to preserve our tree heritage and promote them by keeping abreast of your local county or municipality's codes and get involved in convincing them to insist on preserving and or replacing trees a priority for construction and development.

The Arbor Day Foundation is sponsoring a project called the National Hazelnut Project to help combat global warming. For a $20 fee one can become a research participant and receive three hazelnut bushes. They say the woody bushes grow to be about ten feet tall. The Foundation will follow-up with annual surveys of each participant to see how their hazelnuts are doing.

http://www.arborday.org/shopping/memberships/hazelnut/join.cfm

Lorna

Here is a link that might be useful: National Hazelnut Project

Thanks for the info on the Arbor Day organization. I have been to their website recently myself and have put that on my list of things to do. And I like the hazelnut idea too.
I was involved some years ago with planting tons of trees from the Arbor Day org and I remember thinking about what a wonderful thing that we were doing. My main thought was to help replace those that are cut down, but like you guys already mentioned, there are many other reasons to plant trees.

Calliope, you must get such a sense of contentment when you look out at all your trees. What a thrill to watch them grow over the years. I have had the thought of planting a special tree in honor of my father who recently died. And I will see it grow and I will "pass it on" to my children, so to speak.

Evergreens, such as fir trees, do best when planted early in winter. Fruit bearing trees do best when planted in early spring. One has to take root spread into account, when planting trees near a house--don't want tree roots doing foundation damage to the house.

Flutterby, a tree would be a lovely tribute to your father. If you know he liked a particular type of tree, you could plant one of those. Otherwise, you could pick something which symbolizes your father's spirit, a mighty oak comes to my mind.

The oldest known, single organism, living on Earth is a Bristlecone Pine Tree located in the White Inyo Mountain Range of California. It is nearly 4,800 years old! The precise location of the tree is kept secret by the Forest Service to protect the tree from vandalism. It was identified in 1957, and age dated by core sample.

Lorna

We plant flowering trees or fruit trees to honor departed loved ones
or to remember a special event like the birth of a child or grandchild .
We enjoy the beauty of the trees and the beautiful memory of the person .

I love your ideas, Lorna and gatormom. I actually have been thinking of planting a small nut tree orchard for my Dad, not because he was a nut (just kidding Daddy, I love you), but because he provided for his family in smaller but consistent ways (things were tight for us growing up). I think of the nutrition etc that we get from nuts as being a well-kept secret, just like my Dad. He wasn't the big bold macho guy, but quiet, gentle and caring, a real person. And he had a special fondness for them as well. I will have a nice garden bench out there too.

I thought about mentioning a nut tree, flutterby, but I was worried you might take offense! :-) The Hazelnut Project might be the perfect thing for you. I have a couple of almond trees, which I bought from the Arbor Day Foundation. They have such pretty blooms! Unfortunately high winds tore all of the flowers off, so I didn't get any nuts this year.

I want to try some pecan trees and hazelnuts. I live at the top of the Chihuahuan Desert. I'm hoping that since the almond trees are doing well, other types of nuts will do well, too.
Lorna

Be sure and do a search on Arborday.org's trees first. Some people have been disappointed with them. I got their 10 free trees for joining many years ago and they never leafed out but I was a very inexperienced gardener back then so it could have been my fault.

Some state conservation or forestry departments can provide low cost seedlings. Ours in Missouri offers bare-root trees in bundles of 25 and has some mixed bundles. It works out to less than 50 cents a tree even when you include the cost of postage and they have a lot to choose from. You have to live in Missouri to order from them but I wanted to mention it since someone that posted here is from Missouri. Other states have similar programs.
If the bundles come with more trees than you can use, consider donating them to a school for the kids to take home. You have to put damp newspapers then plastic around each one so it's time consuming unless the teacher would let the kids do that at school. I did this for my kids' classes and included planting instructions and information about the tree program in case they wanted to order more.

Organic_flutterby - I'll send you an email. I know they offer pecan, and black walnut trees and hazelnuts too I think.

I have several Arbor Day trees growing on my property . When I received the trees , they were tiny , scrawny , sticks and very sad .
Today they are large , healthy , robust trees -- Red Bud and Crape Myrtles .
Be patient and know that it may take many years to see results .
It is well worth the wait .

If you are interested in healthy trees, locally grown (and they usually acclimate best) contact your state nursery, or soil conservation district. Our SCD offers packages of trees every spring. They are very inexpensive, and you can choose from wildlife trees with nuts and berries, to ornamentals.

I too plant trees. And believe in it for all the reasons given in this thread! And encourage others to do it.

So more power to you.

People reading this thread might enjoy the link I've given below.

Joel

Here is a link that might be useful: Richard St. Barbe Baker

Spring is slowly arriving here where I live. That's prompted me to take a new interest in this thread!

What sort of trees are you thinking of planting this upcoming season?

For me, the first ones will no doubt be a strain of white pine (one resistant to the pine beetle) that I've had since last year. I have an area picked out where I want to see them to go and grow.

Just checking... did anyone here go for some of this tree planting this year?