While we pray for peace and fight for democracy, we must not forget the health of our planet! Greening Greenfield is continuing that effort with a winter talk series on “Water and Our Climate.”
While seeking speakers with Dorothea Sotiros, she urged me to explore Australian Climate Scientist Walter Jehne’s work, and I learned a startling thing!
Walter Jehne said that our planet has lost 50% of its vegetation over the last 10,000 years due to land clearing to grow crops and create pastures. This was startling to me because vegetation, especially trees, drive the water cycle that regulates our climate!
Today, scientists agree that all the continents are drying due to this loss of vegetation. In the Northeast, we are not so aware of this because, while we are experiencing extreme cycles of wet and dry, on balance, we are not yet experiencing severe extended drought like most of the rest of our planet.
As I was falling into despair, I discovered that Walter Jehne also said a hopeful thing. If we revegetate 4% of the planet we would make significant progress toward stabilizing our climate.
This led me to research who is working on revegetating our planet. I’m inspired by the worldwide efforts! I learned that The United Nations, inspired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai of Kenya, launched the “Plant-for-the-Planet: Billion Tree Program” in 2006, to combat climate change, deforestation, and biodiversity loss. This goal was quickly surpassed. By 2011 over 12 billion trees had been planted worldwide! A German youth was also inspired by Wangari Maathai, and today “Plant-for-the-Planet” is a global youth program that works with the UN.
In 2020, the UN goal was again surpassed, and they announced a 1 Trillion Tree Program. Donald Trump committed the U.S. to support this effort along with the rest of the world. To support the tree program, the UN General Assembly declared 2021–2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which is driving massive, global tree-planting and restoration efforts with an emphasis on planting indigenous trees appropriate to local environments to combat climate change and biodiversity loss.
Back to Greening Greenfield’s 2026 Water and Our Climate series. We invited internationally known educator, Didi Pershouse, who worked with Walter Jehne, to be our first speaker. She talked about the importance of the soil-sponge in supporting trees and the water cycle. She explained that in a reciprocal relationship, trees and other vegetation create the soil-sponge which absorbs and cleans our water, reduces flooding, recharges our aquifers, and supports vegetation in dryer times.
For our second speaker, we invited UMass professor Dr. Christine Hatch to talk in February about what we can learn from beavers. We learned that beavers not only build dams to slow and retain water, their ponds also build the soil-sponge and create a rich native habitat where many other critters thrive.
Greening Greenfield’s final speaker, landscape architect at the Conway School, Kate Cholakis, will talk about how we can take what we have learned from Walter Jehne and our two previous speakers and apply it to our yards and community. She will talk about how we can become stewards of the landscape by managing water to increase vegetation and create beautiful new native habits, while also reducing our lawns to keep water from running off down storm drains that can cause our rivers to flood. Kate Cholakis will be speaking on March 19 at 6:30 pm at the Second Congregational Church. All Greening Greenfield events are free. Videos of past speakers are on our website at www.GreeningGreenfieldMA.org, under “Nature,” and then “Learn From Experts.”
I also urge you to visit the fabulous exhibit at LAVA called TREES! This exhibit, sponsored by Greening Greenfield, celebrates the value of native trees, and projects in Greenfield. On one wall, there are photos of volunteers planting over 700 trees and shrubs in 2025 during phase 1 of Building Resilience Through Habitat Restoration at Millers Meadow on the Green River, and an invitation from the city, Youth Climate Action Franklin County, and Greening Greenfield to help plant 400 trees this summer. On the second wall the Greenfield Tree Committee has a display of photos, the benefits of urban trees, maps of past and future plantings, and how you can sign up for a free tree to be planted on your street or in your front yard, as well as help plant street trees.
Please join the worldwide effort to plant one trillion trees and help restore our climate and enhance biodiversity! Watch for announcements of spring tree plantings at Millers Meadow, and along our streets, and consider planting native trees and shrubs near your home.
Nancy Hazard is a member of Greening Greenfield, Sustainable Greenfield Implementation Committee (SGIC), and retired director of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA). Opinions expressed are her own. She invites feedback at NancyHazard30@gmail.com.