Sturgeon Bay, Wis. (September 16, 2021) – The Climate Change Coalition of Door County is distributing 650 trees to 14 local churches, organizations and businesses, including all eight branches of the Door County library system, in an ongoing effort to expand the county’s woodlands and offset carbon emissions.
The trees are all native species — red pine, white pine, white spruce, white cedar and balsam fir.
Churches involved are Immanuel Lutheran, Baileys Harbor; Ephraim Moravian; Hope United Church of Christ and Prince of Peace Lutheran, both in Sturgeon Bay; Stella Maris Roman Catholic Parish; and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County. In addition, Ecology, Bay Shore Outfitters, Greens’n’Grains, Main Street Market, The Clearing and the Town of Gibraltar are taking part.
Greens n’ Grains, Bay Shore Outfitters in Sturgeon Bay and Ecology will be offering public pick-up starting September 22. Main Street Market will have trees on Sept. 30. The libraries will be giving away trees in coordination with the Door County Seed Library’s seed giveaway beginning on September 28.
Trees are the lungs of the Earth, breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out the oxygen on which life depends. It’s this ability to separate and sequester carbon dioxide that makes them such an efficient way to tackle rising levels of carbon dioxide, produced in large part by burning fossil fuels. Planting trees is a practical, hands-on way to combat climate change, whose effects we see ever more clearly in increasingly severe storms, drought, wildfires and rising sea levels.
The Climate Change Coalition has organized tree planting efforts for five years and, with partner groups, has planted more than 30,000 trees across the county.