Gift Trees Planting Project – Illinois

Project Description

This Gifted Tree Planting Project is in Illinois. This is a unique type of planting project as the plantings occur in urban areas as opposed to wilderness areas of National Forests. Your gift tree sapling was grown from native tree acorns and includes a variety of saplings including Bur Oak, Red Oak, Swamp White Oak, Shagbark Hickory, and Shellbark Hickory.

The project only plants mast producing trees. Mast is the botanical name for the nuts, seeds, buds, or fruits of trees and shrubs that are eaten by wildlife. Hard mast includes hard nuts and seeds such as acorns, hickory nuts, and walnuts. Soft mast includes berries and fruits such as crabapples. This is critical so that wildlife have access to nuts and fruits as a viable food source. Trees are planted in the Chicagoland area and communities around the state to reduce the impacts of climate change, increase biodiversity, reduce erosion, and provide shade to rivers systems to help reduce algae blooms and eutrophication, the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients causing the death of animal life from lack of oxygen.