Fruit trees everywhere! Wouldn’t that be nice. Well, a bunch of people and organizations are working to make that happen. They’ve formed the Boston Tree Party,… a little more productive than the modern-day Tea Party nightmare we have in Congress and in state and local governments.
I love this intro to the party and its purpose from Lisa Gross of Civil Eats (both in text and video — she recently spoke at a TEDx conference about this):
Imagine our cities filled with fruit trees and I don’t mean fruit trees planted by the side of the road dropping fruit on your car once they’re overripe. I mean fruit trees planted in civic spaces—schools, hospitals, parks, businesses, houses of worship, and more.
Imagine communities coming together to care for their trees, to harvest and share their fruit. These trees become a tool of environmental restoration, helping to restore the health of our soil, improve air quality, and absorb rainwater runoff. From them we learn, participate, and connect to the social and natural world around us. This is the vision of the Boston Tree Party.
Looks like an awesome project or group or vision or movement or whatever you might call it.
Over 50 Tree Party groups have been launched in the greater Boston area since April 2011, showing the clear thirst for such productive, green efforts. I’m sure the potential doesn’t only exist in Boston and hope to see the idea spreading across the U.S. and even the world in the coming months and years.
Ready to start one in your area?
Here’s one more video of Lisa Gross speaking at the Boston Tree Party Inauguration to get you inspired:
Several more videos available on the inauguration page.
Images via The Boston Tree Party