Dominion Energy’s popular Project Plant It! program blooms again in 2022 as 51,000 students across the U.S. will receive free redbud tree seedlings and packets of wildflower seeds that attract bees and pollinators. Since 2007, Project Plant It! has been teaching the next generation about the benefits of trees and pollinators to the ecosystem.
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This year marks the 16th implementation of Project Plant It! and also recognizes the 150th anniversary of the first Arbor Day in 1872 when journalist J. Sterling Morton proposed a tree-planting holiday that resulted in one million trees being planted in Nebraska. In addition, Dominion Energy’s longtime partner for Project Plant It!, the Arbor Day Foundation, was founded 50 years ago in 1972.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate these major milestones with the Arbor Day Foundation,” said Shai West, Project Plant It! coordinator and associate community affairs representative at Dominion Energy. “Together, we’re helping students of all ages understand that trees improve air quality, provide a home for wildlife, prevent soil erosion and impact the sustainability of our environment is so many ways.”
West noted that Project Plant It! added the pollinator feature to the program in the 2020-2021 academic year. “Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and bats are some of the pollinators that play an essential role in supporting our nation’s food system,” she said. “Project Plant It! aims to increase bee populations by having students plant pollinator gardens at their homes, on school grounds or in their communities.”
Planting events to celebrate Arbor Day (April 29) and National Wildflower Week (May 1-7) are planned in many states where Dominion Energy conducts business, including Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, to name a few.
Monica Butler, a member of Dominion Energy‘s operations team in Williamsburg, Va., looks forward to a fun tree-planting event at an elementary school in Williamsburg. “I’m so excited to share lots of information about trees with the students when they plant a large sapling on the school grounds with our Dominion Energy foresters and lineworkers,” she said. “The students will learn how to take care of the tree and they can measure its growth over the years. Project Plant It! offers students in all of our communities a memorable, hands-on educational experience.”
Elementary, middle and high schools, scout troops, environment clubs and YMCAs are among the many entities participating in Project Plant It! in 2022. Approximately 832,000 planting materials (combination of tree seedlings and wildflower seed packets) have been distributed since 2007.