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8 REASONS TO PLANT TREES
• Trees make effective sound barriers, muffling sounds almost as
effectively as stone walls.
• One mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in one growing
season as 10 people breath in a year.
• To produce its food a tree absorbs and locks away carbon dioxide
which is a suspect in global warming. An urban forest can literally
become a carbon sink seeing as it traps as much carbon as it
produces.
• Trees clean the air by intercepting particles when breathing,
reducing heat and absorbing pollutants such as carbon monoxide,
sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
• Trees regulate temperature by providing shade in summer and
acting as wind breaks in winter. Studies have shown that parts of
cities that don’t have trees are on average up to 6˚Celcius warmer
than parts that have trees.
• With their root systems, trees help to fight soil erosion, reduce
water runoff as well as reducing sediment deposits after rain
storms.
• Trees increase property value by as much as 15%
• Trees provide a large number of animals especially birds with a
home or building material for a home.
It is estimated that there are roughly 61 trees for every one person on Earth. On the other hand in most countries less trees are being planted than the trees that are cut down annually, so 400 Billion trees might seem like a lot but on a global scale it really isn’t.
Recognising this trend Koos van den Berg (known to his friends as “Koos Boom” and to the business community as the principle member of Monteviro Environmental Services CC) along with his team at Monteviro launched a project in 2009 that boiled down to the following:
Approach all of the major business players in the Govan Mbeki District Municipality area where Monteviro is based and ask them to sponsor at least one tree to be planted at an educational institution or non-government organisation within Govan Mbeki during Arbour Week 2009.
After many hours of hard work Arbour Week 2009 arrived and in the end the project was a great success with over 300 indigenous trees known to thrive in the area finding their roots at the different beneficiaries that had applied for them.
Given the success of the previous effort the management team of Monteviro have decided to do a follow-up project on the one held in 2009 and to this effect they held a launch evening for this year’s Trees for Life campaign on 26 January 2010 with guest speakers Naas Grové who is the president of The Dendrological Society of South Africa and Christine Mentzel from the Endangered Wildlife Trust. The aim is to double the amount of trees that is sponsored by the community so all the major stakeholders in the area was invited to attend and learn more about why trees are so important to us and the planet. Each participant received a bag full of goodies and useful into and a lucky draw was held with great prises given away.
For more information on this and other special projects by Monteviro visit www.monteviro.co.za or phone 071 332 5100.
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