Earth Day planting with the Quality of Life Foundation

Confession: For years, I have hated Earth Day events. They often felt like publicity stunts for politicians and corporations to justify their exploitation of the earth the other 364 days of the year.

For the Quality of Life Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, tree planting is not an empty gesture. They are very serious about the continued survival of every tree they plant. They hired me and Roy Leggitt as consulting arborists to help with their Earth Day planting at Fairmount Elementary School as a model for future plantings.

Roy and I focused on these key points:

• Visiting the site to determine the best trees for the site conditions 
• Talking to the school garden stewards about what they could realistically take care of
• Inspecting nursery stock for quality
• Using good planting technique 
• Performing follow up visits in the first few years after planting

We had a great time at the school planting. My faith in Earth Day is restored. I look forward to continued work with Lee Hwang, Matt Savage, Larissa Conte and Amber Bieg on future projects!