Dear Envirocare Coordinators, Go Green Champions and Eco Explorers,

This month, we unfold the Sri Sathya Sai International Organization’s (SSSIO) Massive Tree Planting Initiative, featuring SSSIO USA’s OM Sai Trees effort. Trees help to heal the planet in so many beneficial ways. They are increasingly being touted as a simple, straightforward, and ready-for-prime-time solution to climate change.¹ A tree is a towering symbol of our commitment to the environment, one that can live on far beyond our own lifetimes.

"Because there is deforestation to an alarming extent, the extent of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has considerably increased. Therefore, the remedy for this situation is intensive afforestation, growing more trees everywhere and protecting the existing trees without destroying them for other purposes. Thus, the relationship of man, Nature, and God is very intimate..." – Sri Sathya Sai Baba, January 21, 1993

The Sri Sathya Sai International Organization’s (SSSIO) SAI100 program is an offering of love and gratitude to Lord Sai on the 100th anniversary of His Advent. Sri Sathya Sai Centres from the nine (9) Zones across the world are implementing educational, devotional, service, and public outreach activities to serve humanity, intensify our spiritual journey, and serve everyone including Nature, the vesture of God. The SSSIO has already planted over 250,000 trees worldwide, including an unprecedented number in Africa and many other countries.

The SSSIO USA, Zone 1, has dynamically put together a task force of around 950 Sai soldiers, dispersed across 36 Sri Sathya Sai Centres in over 10 regions across the country. Numerous local tree planting activities have been organized since February 2022. Last year has been a thriving and flourishing one to achieve the ambitious SAI100 goal. SSSIO USA features this massive tree planting as OM (OM = one million) SAI Trees activities, and is inspiring and educating enthusiastic volunteers on tree planting and how to nurture each tree as a lifelong commitment. 

Around 4,260 trees have already been planted. The focus is to protect, manage, restore, and enhance our trees to ensure that future generations inherit more and healthier trees than we have now.

Numerous species of trees are blooming in the towns, cities, forests and woodlands of the United States. Each individual is encouraged to participate in one of many ways, including identifying suitable spaces for planting, such as their own yard, indoor space, schools, places of worship, public parks and more. 

On May 15th, 2023, the SSSIO USA Envirocare Wing invited Sai devotees and the public to attend an online session entitled, “Reforest Our Mother, Nourish Our Hearts”. The informative and uplifting presentation heralded SSSIO USA’s second annual Sai & Sustainability Day, the day after USA’s national holiday, Mother’s Day. 

The SSSIO USA recently entered into a formal partnership with Arbor Day Foundation to plant even more trees, leaning on their expertise as the oldest non-profit organization in America, with a mission to plant, celebrate, and nurture trees. SSSIO USA expects to need many such partners with a common cause to reach its goal.

All trees are stately, elegant, and beautiful and their quiet presence is good for our mental and social well-being. The real magic happens in the roots of trees! 

Many trees have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria in their roots. The strong tap roots plunge down into the depths of the soil – 'the reservoir of water and nutrients' – to seek lost moisture, macro and micro nutrients, and to feed themselves and nearby plants. Fallen leaf litter creates new organic matter in the soil. Leaf litter is the largest source of organic matter that enters many stream ecosystems,² an important element of new topsoil creation. Topsoil³ forms very slowly; it can be regarded as a finite resource – it can take around 1,000 years to produce three centimetres of topsoil.⁴ Trees, therefore, create soil.

The soil and trees provide the habitat for the flora and fauna that form the foundations of terrestrial ecosystems. Cutting down trees is actually one of the biggest sources of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When trees are cut down or burned, much of the carbon stored within them escapes into the air, especially if the wood is burned.⁴ Our poor land-use practices threaten the livelihoods and lives of billions.

The focus should be both on numbers of seedlings planted and considerable time to be spent on keeping the trees alive in the long term. The longer a tree lives, the more absorption power it has and the more carbon dioxide it can remove from the atmosphere.⁵

By planting more trees, we contribute to global reforestation efforts and help restore lost forests. There is an urgent need to repair our damaged ecosystems and mitigate impacts of climate change. One of the simplest and best  solutions is clear and sustainable: Trees and more trees!

"Through this Massive Tree Planting Initiative of SSSIO, we can participate individually and communally in the greening of our world. It’s easy to plant trees, and commit to caring for trees of all ages. What a difference you can make to our collective future by partnering with trees! Each tree planted and nurtured transforms our relationship with Mother Earth and Swami." – participants of the Massive Tree Planting Initiative, USA

WATCH an inspiring video on Unity, Purity and Divinity in the Trees Around Us

VISIT the Environmental Sustainability Hub for more insights, Go Green tips and resources.👨‍🌾

Let's make trees the centre-stage of the symbol of life and let them be a clarion call for climate action. 

Share with us your photos of tree planting initiatives you are organizing in your communities at gogreen@sathyasai.org.

With Sai Love and Care,

Environmental Sustainability Committee 

Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

References

^{1 ScienceNews: Why planting tons of trees isn’t enough to solve climate change, by Carolyn Gramling
2 Litter Decomposition as an Indicator of Stream Ecosystem Functioning at Local-to-Continental Scales: Insights from the European RivFunction Project,
Editor(s): Alex J. Dumbrell, Rebecca L. Kordas, Guy Woodward,
Advances in Ecological Research, Academic Press, Volume 55, 2016, Pages 99-182, ISSN 0065-2504, ISBN 9780081009352, https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aecr.2016.08.006.
3 Trees for the future: Soil Regeneration, Written by John Leary & Lindsay Cobb
4 The Heart of England forest: Trees and soil protection by Ben Sheers
5 Global Environment Facility: Healing Trees: a symbol of life after pandemic losses}