Rewild Vermont project sets goal of 100,000 trees

This summer, 350Vermont is launching a project to plant 100,000 trees across Vermont by the end of 2022. Rewild Vermont strives to build on synergies between food justice, climate action and ecological restoration to grow healthier, more just futures for Vermont.

“I’m excited about this project because it puts into practice a new approach to simultaneously growing food and creating resilient ecosystems,” said 350VT co-director Jaiel Pulskamp.

Volunteers will plant, protect and care for an array of native and food-producing species, developing local projects that restore degraded parts of their ecosystems and provide sustenance for vulnerable members of their communities. 350VT organizers, meanwhile, are working with partners like nurseries, conservation districts and other nonprofit organizations to secure affordable bulk seedlings and statewide support.

Priority sites for planting include riparian zones, habitat corridors and public spaces where fruit, nut and medicinal species can be accessible to all. Planting is set to begin this fall, then accelerate with bulk seedling orders and plantings in the spring of 2021, but some local groups have already started on the project.

Climate Advocates Bennington has organized the planting of food forests and orchards at their middle school, town park and wildlife management area.

The Rewild Vermont project is part of 350VT’s campaign Put Carbon in the Ground, and develop local, regenerative solutions to the climate emergency. It draws on new research showing that filling all available non-urban and non-agricultural land with native trees could absorb a “mind-blowing” two-thirds of the anthropogenic carbon in the atmosphere.