Share
With the addition of 360,000 trees in Minnesota’s Chippewa National Forest wrapping up this summer, the National Association of REALTORS® has fulfilled its commitment to plant 1.575 million trees. The goal of NAR’s 2022 pledge was simple: plant one tree for every NAR member by the end of 2025. The completion of the project is 18 months ahead of schedule.
NAR partnered with the National Forest Foundation to plant the trees as part of the association’s sustainability pledge. This year, a total of 550,000 pine, spruce and oak trees were planted across California, Minnesota and Michigan, reforesting wooded areas destroyed by wildfires and affected by other problems.
Last year, NAR gave mother nature a boost in scorched areas like Boise National Forest in Idaho, where conifers were completely decimated in some parts by wildfire. The association planted Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir trees in places that would have taken 30 years or more to regenerate, providing habitat to native species.
The progress was steady, and the reach was vast: forests in 10 states are now benefiting from new seedlings.
Restoring the country’s forests and biodiversity—which, in addition to wildfire, have been hurt by drought, pests and deforestation—serves NAR’s sustainability objectives to protect communities for generations to come, especially in the face of climate change.
A byproduct of NAR’s effort is that it will cut 750,000 metric tons of carbon in the atmosphere—equal to the amount of carbon produced by 161,602 cars in a year, according to EPA calculations.
Improving air quality and stormwater mitigation, along with encouraging biodiversity and improving habitats, are just some of trees’ many benefits to the surrounding communities and the planet.
