Dedicate a Gift Tree to Your Mother & Mother Earth

by Emma Gray

What better way to honor the person who gave you life than by planting a new life in her name?

You can honor your mother and the earth by giving a Friends of Trees Gift Tree for Mother’s Day. For a donation of $35, Friends of Trees will plant a young native tree for your mother and send her a beautiful gift acknowledgment card. A donation of $100 allows Friends of Trees to plant a grove of six trees in her honor.

Gift Trees are planted in the Collins Sanctuary adjacent to Forest Park during one of two annual Gift Tree plantings. Everyone who gives or receives Gift Trees for Mother’s Day this year will be invited to Friends of Trees’ next Gift Tree planting and have the opportunity to plant the trees personally. A Gift Tree is a gift to your mother, a gift to the earth, and a special experience to share together.

In addition to reducing air and water pollution, Gift Trees restore the Collins Sanctuary, a legacy from the Collins Family Foundation to the Portland-metro area. First given to the Oregon Parks Foundation, the land was purchased by Metro in 2008. Now, through Friends of Trees’ partnership with Metro and the Audubon Society of Portland, the Sanctuary is being restored. Through the Gift Trees program, all who plant at the Sanctuary can return years later to see their young trees growing.

The Gift Tree program supports Friends of Trees’ Green Space Initiative, which has planted a record-breaking 23,000 trees and native plants at natural areas and along transportation corridors in the four-county metro area during the 2010-11 planting season.

To learn more or to order Gift Trees, call Emma at 503-282-8846 ext. 31 or visit www.FriendsofTrees.org/GiftTrees.

–Gray is Gift Tree and Membership Services Specialist for Friends of Trees.