It’s Earth Day, the day dedicated to raising awareness and inspiring action to protect the environment. By now, many of you know about the small forest in central Portugal that postcrossers grow a little bit each year.
All year we look forward to this annual tree planting meetup with Quercus, a Portuguese environmental organization whose initiatives include reforestation projects and the nurturing of existing woods. It’s always a special day for us: a chance to get our hands dirty and give back to nature.
This year, the day chosen for the plantation was March 8. As we picked up our shovels and gloves and walked to the plantation site, the skies opened up and it didn’t stop raining all morning. 😥 Even prepared with boots and raincoats, we were quickly soaked to the bone and stayed that way the entire morning.
With rain dripping from our noses and mud caked on our boots, we still managed to plant almost 1000 maritime pine trees — a resilient native species that will help restore biodiversity and capture carbon for decades to come.
Maybe the trees enjoyed the weather more than we did — it was, after all, perfect for their first day in the soil! :) But spirits stayed high, the smiles were wide, and it was still a brilliant day, making sure all those baby trees were tucked in cozily in their sandy new addresses.
We haven’t heard of postcrossers in other countries taking up similar initiatives, but we hope one day there will be more small forests around the world, planted by groups of postcrossers! Check out your local environmental organizations, and keep an eye on their initiatives for a chance to plan one such event in the future! And if you’re just one person but still want to help make this a greener hobby, check out this page for tips.
Here’s to trees, rain, postcards — and caring for the Earth together! 💚
30 comments so far
Hey! What a good work done. Wished I had joined and planted a tree as well. I do that kind of garden work with our smaller flower bulbs each year autumn. Some of the narcissus now withered but normal. Hyacinths and some tulip sorts still nice. In today's warming climate, it is nearly good to read that it rained quite a lot. Happy earth day!.
Hallo! Was für eine gute Arbeit, die erledigt wurde. Ich wünschte, ich hätte auch einen Baum gepflanzt dort. Ich tue diese Art von Gartenarbeit mit unseren kleineren Blumenzwiebeln jeden Herbst. Einige der Narzissen nun verblüht, ist normal. Hyacinthen und einige Tulpensorten noch hübsch. In heutiger Klimaerwärmung beinah gut zu lesen, dass es viel regnete. Happy earth day!.
💓 nicely done!!!
Thank you, you are a role model for younger people. I planted a tree over 20 years ago, participated in a demonstration against tree felling, and throw seed balls. I use my shower water to clean my apartment after showering. I've been walking for over 50 years. I don't use palm oil and buy from local farmers.
This is great! Thanks to everyone.
What a great day! Now I know I can swim on land. LOL! :D
Happy Earth Day! :)
Thank you!!!
Such a wonderful project! Kudos to all you Postcrossers who participated and endured the weather! 👏😊🌱
So lovely!
Great job , I love volunteering,
Such a good thing to do! Thanks verry much!
I love this for so many reasons!
Great Job! Happy #EarthDay
This is just wonderful! I'm never surprised to learn that Postcrossers are doing good things :) I'm just keeping my head down here in my garden just outside Washington DC, hoping for a better future for all of us someday.
Bravo - well done!
😎
Kudos to a job well done! I hope something like this happens near me so I can participate.
Carol
Earth Day is a great day for raising awareness, and inspiring ways where we can protect our environment -- in fact, every day should be an Earth Day. But, leave it to Postcrossers in Portugal to commemorate Earth Day in such a special way. . .and even in the rain this year! Bravo.
Excellent !!! One day, I can imagine, the grandchildren and grand nieces and nephews of these tree planting postcrossers, will enjoy a picnic lunch beneath the maritime pines.
Good job!
Happy Earth-day!
Good work : )
That was a wonderfull event which you all participants will remember for a long. The joy of looking at a tree growing , planted by you is same as looking at your kids growing. With my postcrossing activity I note down the birth days of postcrossors in my list and try to send birthday wish message to them on their special day with a request to plant a tree on this special occasion .
I hope I can visit this forest one day, or even better be able to join in future tree planting.
I think this is an incredible attitude of yours. I hope to participate one day.
That's great!
So nice, I would ove to learn how previous plantation managed to resist and survive, giving hope for a better future.
nice
Reading an article like this makes me really proud to be a member of this incredibly special community. Thank you for all that you do! :)
What a great idea, it would be fantastic to have events all over the world like this for Postcrossing and Earth Day.
Awesome work!
Thank you for doing this!
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