California Christmas Tree is our Holiday Charity creation in collaboration with ONE TREE PLANTED. In this article we will explore why we wanted to work with this charity and share insight to the impacts of the holiday season.
We originally wanted to work with ONE TREE PLANTED to restore a balance on the plant due to the harmful impact of harvesting Christmas Trees in North America. Every year around 40 million Christmas trees are cut down in North America for the holiday season, we explore the impact of holiday trees in our IMACT OF CHRISTMAS TREE article here. We divided up these articles because we wanted to use this space to talk about something a little more personal.
Only a few weeks ago began a series of ongoing California fires that has now prompted a National Weather Service to issue its first-ever "Extreme Red Flag Warning,". A Red Flag Warning is issued when warm temperatures, very low humidities, and stronger winds are expected to combine to produce an increased risk of fire danger.
Earlier in the week, members of the Crystal Bar production team were directly effected and evacuated from their homes due to these fires. Even as I write this she is without water and electricity in her home. This bar and fundraiser is more important to us now than more ever.
CALIFORNIA FIRE FACTS.
Below are the latest updates on the California fires from the CBS news website!
- Kincade Fire: 76,825 acres burned; 45% contained
- Getty Fire: 745 acres burned; 27% contained
- The Easy Fire and Hill Fire broke out in Southern California Wednesday morning. The Easy Fire has burned more than 1,600 acres and is 5% contained; the Hill Fire has burned 628 acres and is 30% contained
- About 206,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity after Pacific Gas & Electric shut off power to millions of people in an effort to prevent new blazes
*Fire right outside the Crystal Bar Studio.
ONE TREE PLANTED
While California's landscapes have historically evolved with fire as a natural occurrence, climate change is exacerbating this and creating extreme conditions which cause the fires to spread further and last longer, or reach areas that would previously not be in a fire-prone zone. Furthermore, post-fire invasive species spread quickly, transforming former forests into less ecologically valuable or diverse brush land, and preventing more resilient native vegetation and trees from taking root.
California's forests provide innumerable benefits, including clean water and air, recreation, timber, habitat, and beautiful scenery. Healthy forests also play an important role in addressing climate change. Five years of drought and a large-scale bark beetle infestation have seriously damaged California’s forests. 2017’s record-breaking wildfire season burned more than 1.3 million acres – an area the size of Delaware. Now, a record 129 million trees need to be restored in California and that statement was written before the current fires the state is facing.
Your contribution will help our amazing partners plant trees and restore forests throughout California. These foresters work hard to promote improved vegetation planning and resource management, helping to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires and floods in the region.
To maximize the impact of your donation, our partner will determine the most appropriate species of tree to plant, depending on the time of year. Species planted include the Sugar Pine, California Redwood (State Tree), Maple, Elderberry, Willow, Birch, Dogwood, Cedar, Giant Sequoia, and Walnut.
