Tzedakah We Love: Trees, Trees and More Trees

Trees everywhere: need to be hugged.I really love Tu B'Shevat. All the things I want and appreciate in a holiday, it has. In years past, I've both attended and held gorgeous, meaningful sederim for the day and unfortunately have to report that I'm not going quite as all-out this year as I did last year. But, that's okay. (PS- Read Helen Jupiter's lovely post about Tu B'Shevat for inspiration.)

Of course, I'm still going to give tzedekah. In addition to the usual JNF Plant-a-Tree program that I often use, as most of us probably have (I do appreciate the environmental work JNF does, among other things) I've unearthed (no pun intended) a few other opportunities for you to love trees if you're thinking of adding another tree, in addition to perhaps an Israeli tree, to your tzedekah this week.

• American Forests has a program similar to the JNF Israeli tree afforestation program, focusing their planting in areas of the US challenged by wildfire, primarily. As an added perk, they offer a carbon footprint calculator on their website (which very well might make you feel like more of a schmuck that you think it will). "Through the Global ReLeaf program, American Forests plants millions of trees each year and advocates the benefits of both rural and urban trees, good science, and sound policy."

• National Tree Trust "promotes healthy communities by providing resources that educate and empower people to grow and care for urban and community forests." The program here also works similarly to JNF's, and allows tzedekah to be earmarked for various campaigns including Katrina Tree Recovery Campaign,
  

• ForestEthics has an information-packed website, complete with letter-writing campaigns to join, suggested boycotts and the like.