Ode in Ethiopia: Planting trees for new subscribers

For the past few years, Ode has been planting trees for new subscribers. Since we don't have someone in house with a degree in forestry management, we've been cooperating with Trees For the Future (www.treesftf.org). This nonprofit has been planting trees since the late 1980’s long before the world learned about climate change.

We've been getting emails from our readers who were anxious to learn more about all those trees. Where are they? Can I see them? What is their impact?

Well, I'm in Ethiopia right now to check it out.

Yesterday I arrived in Addis Ababa, together with Dave Deppner, who founded Trees for the Future with his wife Grace, and some others, including local experts he's been working with.

As far as I can see now, these locals are the reason why TFFT has been so successful in planting up to 50 million trees in thousands of villages in many developing countries at an average cost of about $0.10 whereas competitors sometimes charge up to $2 per tree. TFFT is a low-cost organization that works closely with an army of volunteers and local experts in the field, keeping overhead costs low.

Today we'll be going on a trip to see some projects--trees, I suppose.

Check back soon to see where this project leads me next...