Narrator: Trees. You love their beauty. You love the clean air they provide. And maybe most of
all you love their shade. But did you know we have a big problem here in
Albuquerque? We are losing the trees that provide our shade.
Sarah Hutreau: The last major tree
planting effort happened in the 1930s with Governor Tingley. He sent out seeds
and seedlings all across the state to increase shade and mitigate heat, which
was a great idea. The problem was he was sending out an invasive species and
those trees are nearing the natural end of their lifespan.
All those trees are dying.
Narrator: Why is this a problem? Heat. Our city is getting hotter. We have what is
called the urban heat island effect - hotter temperatures during the day, less
cooling at night and a lot more air pollution.
Berna: I think some of the things
that we have inadvertently done in the last couple decades have a residual
effect to what's being encountered now. You know hotter weather, longer hotter
weather and it can be really uncomfortable as well.
Deb Haaland: We're in a crisis
right now with climate change. We all have to be diligent about every single
thing we're doing with respect to our environment.
Narrator: What's the solution?
Plant a tree.
And then, plant another one. You can join The Nature Conservancy and its
partners in a citywide urban forest initiative to plant 100,000 trees in
the next ten years. That's one tree for every child in Albuquerque. Sarah Hutreau: Our tree planting
campaign is a real opportunity to bring everybody together, all hands on deck, to
plant the right tree in the right place. And transform our landscape to make sure
that our trees are providing shade, they're creating wildlife habitat and
they're also going to save us water in the long run.
Communities are coming
together and planting trees in their public spaces, creating a healthier
future for their neighborhoods.
[In Spanish] I do this mostly for the kids so they spend more
time outside playing and have shade when it's hot.
Faye: Oh it's an amazing feeling. I mean I just feel wish
that we just had more trees to plant today because we'd just plant all day and I
hope that they have more events.
Kevin: I like that we get to bond and it helps the environment.
Sophia: It was fun.
This is one of like the only opportunities we have here to
bring nature back into our culture, in our urban areas. And with all the
industry and everything it's good to add some new green into the area.
Sarah Hutreau: The planting events that we've had have been amazing.
We've had several hundred people come out over multiple days. All of these
partners are coming together and we're all lending a hand because this problem is
larger than any one of us can tackle alone.
Narrator: Our citywide tree planting effort
is off to a great start.
All we need is you.
Berna: If everybody could just take and
plant one tree imagine what it could do for Albuquerque.
Narrator: Plant a tree today.
Visit nature.org/abq to learn how.