A friend of mine — a local high school student — emailed me earlier today with interesting information about a project she and her classmates are currently working on. Her Environmental Science class is giving away trees to the community. They have gathered seeds from their campus and have grown these trees in their nursery, and will have a brochure with each tree with particulars on how to care for that specific type of tree. Pretty genius, if you ask me. Making something from nothing, helping our community, and living green — all rolled up into one amazing project.

She also provided me with some fascinating facts:

• Trees around a house can increase the house’s value by 15%
• Trees next to a house can cut cooling bills by 15-35% and cut down on heating bills by breaking the cold winds that hit your house
• Trees can also help with global warming by removing CO2 from the air
• Trees could also help reduce stress, noted in blood pressure and muscle tightness according to recent studies
• Trees help filter water and clean it before it enters the streams
• Trees help prevent erosion

Interested in helping out? Click here to order a tree (or two or three!).