What is a Tree Buddy?
A Tree Buddy is a street tree that is adopted by one or more Green City Makers to be watered during the summer season (from July 1st to September 30th)
Can I adopt a Tree Buddy in my city even when it is not a supporting City?
Of course! Green City Makers is a movement made by citizens for citizens. Having supporting cities is awesome but our goal is to get to you and to make you aware of this problem and to offer you a simple action plan that could help prevent urban trees from dying because of climate change.
Can I adopt more than one Tree Buddy?
Of course you can adopt as many as you want. There are plenty of street trees without not getting enough water in your city that are desperate to quench their thirst!
Another reason for adopting more than one Tree Buddy is because many people go on holidays during the summer months and they tend to leave for other places. This is the perfect opportunity for you to do your bit in as many places as you can. And don’t worry! Your Tree Buddy in your hometown won’t be jealous. On the contrary it will be very proud of you!
Just remember, on your social media share a selfie watering your new Tree Buddy, and in the post include #greencitymakers #treebuddy, and #cityname, for instance, #Alicante.
Can a Tree Buddy be adopted by many different people?
Absolutely! There are two reasons why.
The first one is that to quench a tree’s thirst it needs more than a bottle of water. That is why being adopted by more than one Green City Maker guarantees that it will get as much water as possible per day.
The second reason is that any tree in the city belongs to the community, not to one person. And a way to make that visible is by promoting awareness of street trees as they become the Tree Buddies of many Green City Makers.
Is it better to water a young or an old tree?
According to the research done by Professor Dagmar Haase all trees from all species and at all ages are in danger. However, it is true that young trees are more sensitive to hydric stress because their root system is very superficial. Long story short: all urban street trees will appreciate being watered, and especially the young ones.
Why do we need to water urban street trees?
According to Professor Dagmar Haase urban trees are experiencing severe hydric stress from climate change. This stress is exacerbated during the summer season where we have more hours of sunshine and the temperatures are consistently higher than the rest of the year.
Urban street trees are at much greater risk because they tend not to receive municipal irrigation and the permeable surface to collect water from the rain is minimal. That is why they are the ones experiencing higher stress compared to urban trees in a city park, for example.