October 2023 Issue

Page 12 October 2023 EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN Trees provide habitat, shade and food for wildlife. They are critical to the health of our waterways and to the protection of topsoil on farms. Photo by Suzanne Bush By Suzanne Bush “The time has come for acts of reverence and restraint on behalf of the Earth. We have arrived at the Hour of Land.” Terry Tempest Williams, writ- er, lecturer, philosopher sees our world as a place of endless possibility—even as danger lurks in polluted air, waterways choke on runoff and invasive insects gobble crops. Like millions of people literally digging in to save the earth and our air and water, Williams does not take our envi- K10 Offers Free Native Trees, Planting Help, to Pennsylvania Farms ronment for granted. She knows everyone has a part to play, and a million small gestures add up to profound change. So, how about ten million small gestures? In 2018 a non-profit or- ganization called Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership (K10) set a goal: plant ten million trees across Pennsylvania by 2025. Five and a half million trees are already in the ground, and the Partnership has branch- es in virtually every county in the state. And that’s not all. Volunteer groups, from the Girl Scouts to business groups, to Eagle Scouts and local conser- vation organizations have been instrumental in planting those millions of trees. Think of all those leaves! Those roots! The cooling effect of more shade! Think about all those people, shovels in hand, planting a greener future for the state. Farms Targeted K10 offers farm owners free native trees and tree planting help to clean their water, reduce erosion and create healthy hab- itats. The Keystone state plans on reaching its clean water goals by planting roughly 96,000 acres, or 8.5 million trees, along streams and waterways. K10 prioritizes large-scale plantings because the more trees that are planted together, the greater the amounts of pollution that will be reduced. In fact, a forested riparian buffer (trees planted along a stream), with a width of 35 ft can reduce up to 50% of nitrogen, 65% of phospho- rus, and 80% of sediment from runoff. These numbers increase to 90-95% across all categories when the buffer width increases to 100 ft. (Source: Lowrance et al, 2001). From the beginning, the K10 team will help farm owners (Continued on page 36)