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Dirty Work: Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership Adding 130,000 New Trees During Fall Planting Season In Pennsylvania

On October 31, the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership said it is at it again, doing the dirty work of adding 130,000 new trees for Pennsylvania during the fall planting season.

“We were able to distribute the trees across 30 different locations throughout Pennsylvania, to over 100 of our partners,” said Marley McKind, Manager of the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). The Partnership is coordinated by CBF and has grown to over 300 partners.

Roughly 28,000 miles of Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams are damaged by polluted runoff and the legacy of coal mining. Trees, especially when planted as riparian buffers, are the most cost-effective tools for cleaning and protecting waterways.

Trees filter and absorb polluted runoff, stabilize streambanks, and improve soil quality. They also help address climate change by cooling the air and sequestering carbon.

“Seeing the level of enthusiasm and passion for planting trees from our partners, communities and individual landowners throughout the Keystone State is what makes this work worth doing,” McKind added.

Katie Ruth, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light, said PA-IPL received requests from its volunteers for about 35,000 K10 trees for the fall season and has 33 volunteer-led distribution sites across the Commonwealth.

“The majority of our distribution locations are within the Chesapeake Bay watershed,” Ruth said. “We have committed network partnerships in 20 Pennsylvania counties and have reached program participants in an additional 35 counties. This represents 85 percent coverage of the state’s 67 counties.”

Grants for a tree planting coordinated by award-winning volunteers and another grant for tree survival are also supporting the Partnership.

A $4,000 grant from The GIANT Company and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful will provide new trees that will be planted at McCaskey High School in the City of Lancaster on Nov. 9.

The effort will be led by Mira Lloyd Dock Partnership Diversity Award recipients Marlisa Yoder-Bontrager, and twin sisters Keisha and Tarsha Scovens. [Read more here.]

The Dock Award is presented by the K10 for conservation and environmental justice work in under-represented communities.

A $75,000 tree survival grant to the K10 by the Foxwynd Foundation of Chester County, will help newly planted trees along Pennsylvania streams live longer, grow stronger, and have a better chance to clean and protect local waters.

Maintenance in riparian buffers, supported by the Foxwynd grant may include straightening, removing or replacing tree shelters after storms, and checking for competing vegetation inside shelters.

Other work could include removing bird nets from shelters with trees growing out the top, applying herbicides, and mowing around trees.

As new trees go into the ground this fall, the Partnership is looking ahead to 2025.

“As we look forward to next year, we’re excited to continue fostering connections, streamlining tree distributions, and getting more trees in the ground,” Marley McKind added. “As we like to say, it all adds up to clean water!”

Visit the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership to learn how you can help clean water grow on trees.

For more on Chesapeake Bay-related issues in Pennsylvania, visit the Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA webpage. Click Here to sign up for Pennsylvania updates (bottom of left column). Click Here to support their work.

CBF has over 275,000 members in Bay Watershed.

Visit DEP’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed webpage to learn more about cleaning up rivers and streams in Pennsylvania's portion of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Click Here to sign up for regular updates on Pennsylvania’s progress.

How Clean Is Your Stream?

The draft 2024 report has an interactive report viewer that allows you to zoom in to your own address to see if the streams near you are impaired and why.

Click Here to check out your streams. Click Here for a tutorial on using the viewer.

(Photo: More than two dozen volunteers sorted and distributed over 12,000 trees and shrubs in Manheim, Lancaster County in October, as the fall season for the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership kicked into high gear.)

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