Trees are great. Not only are they pretty, they also make our nasty Philly air breathable. An alarming 2003 study by American Forests Inc. and the U.S. Forest Service showed that Philadelphia had lost over 34,000 acres (about eight percent) of tree cover in less than two decades. Lucky for us, TreeVitalize is coming to the rescue! TreeVitalize, a public-private partnership, was launched in 2004 to not only plant trees in metropolitan Pennsylvania but also to educate citizens and local governments on how to plant and maintain more trees. Their goal? To plant one million trees in the state by 2012. Since its inception, TreeVitalize has planted over 20,000 trees in Philadelphia and has expanded to all 14 major metropolitan areas in Pennsylvania. Interested volunteers can attend a Tree Tenders training session to learn how to save the world (or Philly), one tree at a time.

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