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CBF's Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership: Last Year's Winners Of The Mira Lloyd Dock Diversity Award Work On Completing Environmental Projects

On November 1, the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership provided an update on the environmental projects the 2022 winners of the Mira Lloyd Dock Partnership Diversity Award-- Brennan Ka’aihue in Cumberland County and Dr. Zeshan Ismat in Lancaster County--are completing with trees and planting supplies provided by the award.

Brennan Ka’aihue celebrated winning a 2022 Mira Lloyd Dock Partnership Diversity Award with a project that is for the birds.

Ka’aihue and a small crew of volunteers planted 75 shrubs and trees at the corner of Ritner Highway and College Ridge Drive on Oct. 21 at Dickinson College in Carlisle.

For Ka’aihue, the planting was about connecting people and wildlife, birds in particular. “We need birds to survive,” Ka’aihue said. “This planting will provide not only food and shelter for migratory and resident bird populations, but also present an opportunity for members of the community to interact with a food source of native species.”

Ka’aihue and crew planted native pawpaw, American persimmon, black chokeberry, redbuds, and hawthorn at Dickinson.

Ka’aihue is proud to receive recognition that comes with winning the Dock Award. “It’s great to see all the different things that I’ve done over the years recognized by my peers in the community, and to be able to use that as a platform to pay it forward,” Ka’aihue said. “Because we’re having the time of our lives planting this now, but to think seven generations ahead how this will benefit people and birds who haven’t been born yet. It’s really heartwarming and wonderful.”

Dr. Zeshan Ismat of Lancaster also received the 2022 award. She started the Blackbirds Environmental Justice group to teach youngsters about the environment in a fun way while emphasizing stewardship, community, and justice.

In 2015, Dr. Ismat pulled together a casual group of her daughter’s friends to emphasize stewardship, community, and justice in Lancaster City. She called the group Blackbirds Environmental Justice.

“Our goal is to rebuild a connection with the land,” Ismat said. “Our identity is tied to our land, and if that connection is broken or strained, it affects a community’s health. We hope that from this young group, we can inspire folks to be advocates for their own communities, with their own voices.”

“Geoscience is a super white discipline, for a variety of reasons,” Ismat said. “Clearly this suggests that folks from marginalized communities don’t feel like they belong in geoscience. Being Brown (from Pakistan), I’ve felt like an outsider at times and so I’d like to try and change that, in whatever small ways I can, by highlighting some environmental issues that affect marginalized communities. All of these things happening at once is how Blackbirds got started.”

The Mira Lloyd Dock Partnership Diversity Award program is made possible by partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation and Project UP, an initiative of Packaging Corporation of America and Boise Paper that aims to revitalize urban communities through tree planting.

“We are thrilled to partner with Arbor Day Foundation and Project UP on this award, and deeply appreciate their support on community-led projects such as these,” said Carla Essing, CBF Grassroots Manager in Pennsylvania.

“Conservation of our natural spaces in urban and suburban areas are key to connecting people with the environment, helps to provide places of respite for humans and wildlife alike, and brings color and life back into these highly developed spaces,” Eissing added. “I’m honored to work with such amazing partners and community members such as Brennan and Zeshan.”

The 2023 winners of the Mira Lloyd Dock Partnership Diversity Award will be announced later in November.

Mira Lloyd Dock is recognized as the first Pennsylvania woman to lead the way in forest conservation. She was an advocate for Penn’s Woods and in 1901 was appointed to the State Forest Reservation Commission by Pennsylvania Governor William Stone.

Visit the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership website to learn how you can help clean water grow on trees. The statewide Partnership is administered by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

(Photos: Brennan Ka’aihue and her crew; Dr. Zeshan Ismat.)

Related Articles - Mira Dock Award:

-- PA Forestry Association, Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership Announce Mira Lloyd Dock Award Winners - Brennan Ka’aihue, Dr. Zeshan Ismat, Linda L. Finley [PaEN]

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