American Association of Zoo Keepers
Lincoln Park Chapter
Trees For You and Me
Trees For You and Me is a friendly competition between AAZK chapters that was launched by former Polar Bears International Field Ambassadors. It is a financial campaign to raise money to plant trees.
Trees act as “carbon sinks” that absorb CO2 from the air. Reducing the build-up of carbon in the atmosphere is necessary to reverse climate change. Polar bears depend on sea ice to hunt, breed, and in some cases to den. Less carbon in the atmosphere means better conditions to retain arctic sea ice and improve polar bear habitat and survival. Conservation actions that reduce the production of greenhouse gases are the most impactful efforts to save polar bears and other animals that depend on sea ice.
Planting trees in North America is one of the few tools that we have to sequester carbon. For other forestation efforts, saving tropical rainforests is even more impactful for sequestering CO2.
Lincoln Park AAZK has participated in Trees For You and Me for the last several years and we have raised over $3000 to date. Examples of the activities that we have done to help us raise money is our New Year's Day Polar Plunge in Lake Michigan, and a Valentine's Day dinner.
For more information on Trees For You and Me and Polar Bears International, go to www.polarbearsinternational.org.
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Trees For You and Me
Trees For You and Me is a friendly competition that was launched several years ago by former Polar Bears International field ambassadors. Several AAZK Chapters compete each year from February to November to raise money to plant trees to help combat climate change. Funds raised by local AAZK chapters and other conservationists from the communities are used in an annual granting program aimed to provide funding for tree-planting to areas of the world that have been devastated by deforestation.
Trees store carbon in their roots, trunks, stems, and leaves. Planting trees helps reduce the build-up of carbon in the atmosphere, and this is necessary to reverse climate change. Less carbon in the atmosphere helps improve the conditions of sea ice in the arctic, which polar bears and many other species depend on to survive.
Lincoln Park AAZK has held several events to raise money for Trees For You and Me over the past several years. We have done a polar plunge into Lake Michigan on New Year's Day. We have also hosted a Valentine's Day dinner at a local restaurant. For the last 3 years we have held a Polar "Beer" tasting event around International Polar Bear Day.
Information on the 2018 competition (which begins February 1, 2018) will be coming soon to our upcoming events page. For more information on Polar Bears International and Trees For You and Me go to www.polarbearsinternational.org.