Port Byron, Illinois / May 5, 2016--The MillionTrees Project was started by Living Lands & Waters (LL&W) in 2007 with the goal of planting/distributing one million trees. After nine years of hard work, LL&W is proud to announce that today they reached that goal!
Over 600 students from Riverdale Elementary School excitedly gathered together this morning with LL&W Founder and President Chad Pregracke and crew. The momentous occasion was complete with the presentation and planting of the one-millionth tree along with surprise appearance from “The Walking Tree of Life”--a larger than life, 10-foot tall, walking, talking tree man. Chad worked side by side with four students to plant the tree, as the other students wildly cheered in the background.
“Not only was it a great day to plant the one-millionth tree,” said Chad, “ But doing it with 600 kids was really one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. A few years back one of the LL&W Board Members said to me you know you are really building a legacy. I never really thought about it, but it’s true. We really are…a much cleaner river, and today we’ll have added one million trees to the Midwest.”
The MillionTrees Project will continue on into years to come with the same goal in mind. Moving forward, the LL&W Tree Nursery in Davenport, IA will continue to serve a vital role in the project’s success as all trees will be grown locally in the Quad City Area.
About Living Lands & Waters – Chad Pregracke started Living Lands & Waters in 1998 as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the beautification and restoration of America’s major rivers and the education of environmental issues. From his single boat beginning, LL&W has grown to an industrial strength, internationally known organization with a fleet of barges and workboats. LL&W engages thousands of volunteers each year in river cleanups, hands-on environmental education workshops, the Great Mississippi River Cleanup, Adopt-a- River-Mile program, Invasive Species Removal, and the Million Trees Project.
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