Psst! Everyone's planting healing trees in Upstate NY

What significance can one single tree have in understanding the history of a landscape and the people whose earth bridges with earth? Trees become the belly of our drums, their breeze is the vocal cords of our historical memory, and their trunks the container for our souls. What happens when their meaning is forgotten?

Join us in planting forests of legacy trees and memory trees as a part of our ancestral tradition and pollinating the future for our loved ones.

In Benin, on our ancestral grounds, a story steeped in spirituality and ecological systems, required our ancestors to be in communion with the trees before entering the Door of No Return and stepping foot on the slave ships. This ritual, ceremony and practice, involved circling a tree ten times until the tree recognized the Spirit that inhabited the individual who was captured and about to be taken from their lands into the belly of the boat. The encircling of the tree was a ritual to bind one’s relationship with the earth and their native land, so that their soul could find its way home.

In Black feminist ecologies and spirituality, trees are the holders of our spirit and the beacon of our soul.

Restore forward is located on the Freedom Trail in Upstate New York. As we close out our year and sit in deep reflection of our calling and our location, and prepare for the launch of the Abolitionist Freedom Trail, we remember the souls that traversed great bodies of water to be met with the roots of one tree as they left the roots of another. As we plant legacy and memory trees with you, it is a reminder that these trees hold the spirits of our ancestors.

GIVE THE GIFT OF A TREE

Plant healing trees in our Memory Forest, and create Habitats of Pollinators on 300 acres of land in upstate New York to honor legacy, memory and custodians of the future.

NATIVE CHESTNUT FOR MEMORY

(Native Chestnut species name Phytophthora Cinnamomi)

Like the strength and majesty of the chestnut tree, your tree will be planted to honor the power of your loved one.

Restore our forests with the most critical tree on our eastern edge. In the 20th century, our forest lost an essential source of the mast for wildlife with the complete eradication of the native chestnut. With much work and research from our conservationist allies, the chestnut tree will be available again.

The Native Chestnut is known to reach 100 feet tall with a trunk diameters often well over 10 feet round. Your family will be able to visit this tree annually along with creating traditions of harvesting chestnuts, witnessing pollinators sharing sweet blossoms, and creating memories and rituals at the base of the tree.

With your memory commitment, growing our forest with our native hardwood protector, ecological healer and giver will be possible again.

DONATE: $500.00

DONATE: $250.00

DONATE: $100.00

PLANT A CHESTNUT TREE FOR MEMORY

NO TEXT EOY Tree Pledges Banner Images-3.jpg

NATIVE EVERGREEN FOR LEGACY

Like a native evergreen tree that symbolizes immortality and eternal life, leave an organic, ever-growing alter to honor your legacy or the legacy of someone else.

Leave an organic, ever-growing altar to honor your legacy or the legacy of someone else. Evergreen support a congruous symbiotic system with constant care and protection by housing our tiny living creatures in their safe careful branches from harsh natural elements.

With your legacy giving, our forest will form an ever protecting and caring ecological community. As the tree matures, the family can building (such as a treehouse) on the large, strong protective branches of the chestnut as to live inside the legacy of our ancestors.

DONATE: $500.00

DONATE: $250.00

DONATE: $100.00

PLANT AN EVERGREEN TREE FOR LEGACY

NO TEXT EOY Tree Pledges Banner Images-2.jpg

POLLINATOR HABITATS FOR CUSTODIANS OF THE FUTURE

Like the pollinator plants and insects that provide life for the future, invest in a child's destiny.

By building an environmental and exploratory place for our future ecologically conscious, earth base and social justice warriors and leaders, our pollinator prairies will be habitats to explore, discover restorative action and create symbiotic relationships.

To ensure we build good land stewardship practices, your support will provide a safe, supportive place for our native animals and insects, a safe haven for our wildlife, and also a place to learn love and grow for our future children.

DONATE: $200.00 for Honey Bee Hives

DONATE: $100.00 for Understory Pollinator bushes (berries)

DONATE: $75.00 for Perennials & Self-seeder plants

DONATE: $50 for Strawberry bunches

POLLINATE THE FUTURE

A TREE PLANTING & POLLINATOR HABITAT GIFT INCLUDES:

A tree seedling or grove of seedlings, planted for you in a natural setting in a US National Forest
A sustainably sourced, Restore Forward Certified greeting card to commemorate the tree planting
Stamping and mailing of the card directly to the recipient of your gift, with a First Class stamp and your return address on the envelope for a more personal touch
The ability to personalize your card and add a personal message to the recipient (once you make your donation, you will be provided with a link to download the card)
Tree planting location and restoration project printed on the inside of the keepsake card

You can mail your contribution to:

Black Women’s Blueprint, PO Box 24713, Brooklyn, NY, 11202

Please add "Plant a Tree" to the memo line

Thank you for your support of our work!

DONATE TODAY!