Earth Day was founded fifty-one years ago, by former Wisconsin Governor and US Senator Gaylord Nelson, who pushed for a day to raise awareness about environmental challenges.
And today, our current governor pledged to conserve and restore forestland in Wisconsin. As part of his Earth Day pledge, Governor Evers committed to conserve 125,000 acres of forest land and plant 75 million trees over the next ten years. Most of that will go to rural areas, but at least 1 million are planned to be planted in urban areas, too.
For more on all the state’s tree-planting initiatives, including the 1 Trillion Tree Pledge and a plan to distribute seedlings, we spoke with Carmen Hardin, who is Applied Forestry Bureau Director at the Wisconsin DNR.
(Photo: Northwoods trees in the Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest / Chali Pittman)