Team Trees

Team Trees (stylized as #TEAMTREES) is a collaborative fundraiser that raised 20 million U.S. dollars before the start of 2020 to plant 20 million trees. The initiative was started by American YouTubers MrBeast and Mark Rober, and was mostly supported by YouTubers.[1] All donations go to the Arbor Day Foundation, a tree planting organization that pledges to plant one tree for every U.S. dollar donated.[2] The Arbor Day Foundation began planting in January 2020 and plans to end "no later than December 2022".[2][3] It is estimated that 23 million trees would take up 210 km2 (81 sq mi) of land,[4] absorb around 1.6 million tons of carbon and remove 116 thousand tons of pollutants from the atmosphere.[5][6]

Team Trees
DateOctober 25, 2019 – present (2019-10-25 – present)
Also known as
  • TeamTree
  • #TeamTrees
CauseDeforestation
MotiveTo take action against deforestation by planting 20 million trees
TargetTo raise $20 million crowdfunded U.S. dollars
Organized by
Websiteteamtrees.org

As of 26 October 2023, the project has raised $24,492,768, exceeding the fundraiser's goal to plant 20 million trees. As anticipated, more than 20 million trees have been planted.[7]

Background

The idea started on May 24, 2019, when a fan suggested on Reddit that MrBeast (James Donaldson) should plant 20 million trees to celebrate reaching 20 million subscribers on YouTube.[8][3] The idea spread across YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter, mostly in the form of memes.[2][3] The idea may have been related to the 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires. American YouTuber, engineer, and inventor Mark Rober partnered directly with Donaldson to launch the fundraiser. On October 25, 2019, Donaldson uploaded a YouTube video explaining his plan,[9][10] which claimed the top spot on YouTube's trending page, and caused numerous YouTubers to join the movement.[3][11]

The trees will be planted "in a variety of forests on public and private lands in areas of great need" starting in January 2020. The goal is to have them planted "no later than December 2022".[2][3]

Responses

Many YouTubers created content to capitalize on the growing trend of Team Trees;[3] despite the Arbor Day Foundation reaching out to only a few hundred creators, Team Trees is now featured in over 80,000 videos from over 4200 global creators. Across Instagram and Twitter over 556,001 posts have garnered more than 4.6 billion views.[12]

Discovery Channel made a documentary called #TeamTrees about the campaign which aired on December 3, 2019, coupled with a donation of USD $100,203 the next day.[13]

Eike Lüdeling, the department head of horticultural sciences at the University of Bonn, stated, "It turns out that many of these seedlings, if you don't do this well or if people do it who don’t really care about those trees, then they all just die quickly. Sometimes it’s probably a better idea to plant fewer trees and really take care of them." Danny Cohn, the director of public relations for the Arbor Day Foundation, addressed these concerns in saying that "the partners who work with the organization are all required to have plans to help their trees thrive."[14]

Planting projects

Planting locations of Team Trees include:[15]

Location Country Continent Number of Trees Status
Andes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru South America 300,000 Completed
Central and Northern Victoria Australia Oceania 75,000 Completed
Eastern Queensland Australia Oceania 300,000 Partially completed
Amazon rainforest Brazil South America 600,000 Completed
Atlantic Forest Brazil South America 170,000 Partially completed
Burundi Africa 100,000 Completed
Area of 2017 Elephant Hill Fire, British Columbia Canada North America 170,000 Completed
Area of 2017 Hanceville Fire, British Columbia Canada North America 150,000 Completed
The Great Green Wall Chad, Mali, Senegal Africa 3,840,000 Partially completed
Minqin County, Gansu Province China Asia 25,000 Completed
Gaizhou, Liaoning Province China Asia 45,000 Partially completed
Dominican Republic North America 200,000 Completed
France Europe 150,000 Completed
Haiti North America 1,050,000 Completed
Cauvery River Basin India Asia 905,439
West Papua Province Indonesia Asia 450,000 Completed
Ireland Europe 100,000 Completed
Kijabe Forest Kenya Africa 950,000 Completed
Xe Sap and Xe Pian National Protected Areas Laos Asia 30,000
Kianjavato Mountain Range Madagascar Africa 400,000 Completed
Madagascar Africa 600,000 Completed
Mozambique Africa 1,252,007 Completed
Chitwan National Park Nepal Asia 885,000 Completed
Auckland New Zealand Oceania 28,789 Completed
Maitai valley New Zealand Oceania 32,590 Completed
Nicaragua North America 975,000 Completed
Peru South America 235,800 Completed
Portugal Europe 10,000 Completed
Freetown Peninsula Sierra Leone Africa 100,000
Palencia Spain Europe 4,200 Completed
Mae Hong Son Province Thailand Asia 50,000 Completed
Adana Province Turkey Asia 60,000 Completed
İzmir Province Turkey Asia 50,000 Completed
United Kingdom Europe 24,000 Completed
United Kingdom Europe 50,000 Completed
Mersey Forest United Kingdom Europe 270,000
Southeastern United States United States North America 1,000,000
Mississippi River Valley in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi United States North America 1,000,000
Butte County, California United States North America 100,000 Completed
Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida United States North America 983,000
Watersheds in Georgia United States North America 450,000 Completed
Michigan State Forests United States North America 2,207,067 Completed
Bitterroot National Forest, Montana United States North America 63,800 Completed
Flathead and Kootenai National Forests, Montana United States North America 281,132 Completed
Gallatin National Forest, Montana United States North America 275,000 Completed
Nebraska National Forest, Nebraska United States North America 40,000 Completed
Bladen Lakes State Forest, North Carolina United States North America 197,555 Completed
Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, Oregon United States North America 23,100 Completed
Willamette River Basin, Oregon United States North America 500,000 Completed
South Carolina United States North America 1,350,000 Completed
Rappahannock River Watershed, Virginia United States North America 50,000 Completed
Washington United States North America 650,000 Completed

Legacy
Main article: Team Seas

On October 29, 2021, MrBeast and Mark Rober teamed up again to launch Team Seas, a successor to the project that aimed to help clean up marine debris. As with the Team Trees campaign, many influencers had also joined in spreading the message to help the project be a success. While the project is international, MrBeast and Mark Rober had traveled to the Dominican Republic to help clean up there and address issues with trash collection in underdeveloped and underserved areas.

See also

References
  1. Williams, David (October 30, 2019). "YouTube star MrBeast wants to plant 20 million trees. As Of 1st Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and more helped him succeed". CNN. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  2. Alexander, Julia (October 25, 2019). "MrBeast partners with more than 600 YouTubers, including PewDiePie and MKBHD, to plant 20 million trees". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 28, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  3. Tenbarge, Kat (October 27, 2019). "Here's why the top YouTubers from all corners of the platform are talking about planting 20 million trees for #TeamTrees". Insider. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  4. Allain, Rhett (October 25, 2019). "Can We Plant 20 Million Trees for 2020? The Math Says Yes". Wired. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  5. "Impact of the Time for Trees Initiative". Arbor Day Foundation. Archived from the original on May 9, 2019. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  6. Mellor, Maria (November 1, 2019). "YouTubers (and Elon Musk) want to plant millions of trees. Will it help fight climate change?". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Archived from the original on December 19, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  7. "#teamtrees". Archived from the original on December 26, 2019.
  8. "Please save us MrBeast". Reddit. May 24, 2019. Archived from the original on May 23, 2019. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  9. "Planting 20,000,000 Trees, My Biggest Project Ever!". YouTube. October 25, 2019. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  10. Cheok, Melissa (October 31, 2019). "Musk Donates 1 Million Trees to Global Reforestation Campaign". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on October 31, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  11. Calma, Justine (October 25, 2019). "Planting trees to take on climate change isn't as easy as YouTubers might think". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  12. "20M Trees Achieved! Go #TeamTrees". TINTup.com. December 19, 2019. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  13. Meyers, Alyssa (November 20, 2019). "Discovery Channel is making a feature about YouTuber MrBeast's #TeamTrees movement, which has raised millions to plant trees". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  14. Calma, Justine (October 25, 2019). "Planting trees to take on climate change isn't as easy as YouTubers might think". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  15. "Help Us Plant 24 Million Trees - Join #TeamTrees". teamtrees.org. Archived from the original on May 17, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.