On March 1, we planted 100,000 trees…

The numbers primarily serve to express a rough magnitude of the work done by the 10 Million Trees community. 

It is not the exact number of trees that matters. Approximately 10 areas the size of Margaret Island were planted today. More importantly, this took place at 281 locations across the country (in 106 municipalities), as well as in one municipality each in Slovakia and Szeklerland, where nearly six thousand people picked up shovels at our invitation and encouragement to plant trees.

This is a crowd that no environmental action in this country has managed to mobilize before. While the Bős-Nagymaros project, Zengő, the appropriation of lakes, and the deforestation decree have drawn significant crowds, never before have so many come together for proactive action rather than protest. 

I am incredibly proud!

IT WAS AN UPLIFTING DAY

Over the past few days, as if by design, there has been some rain in various places. 

Unfortunately, it was little, far from compensating for the months of drought we have been suffering, but it helped us dig more easily today, on the morning of National Tree Planting Day.

ELEVATION AND OVERFLOWING JOY

I have been in a heightened mood for days, almost floating above the ground. I am filled with happiness and an all-encompassing sense of well-being. 

I am surrounded by wonderful people, incredibly talented colleagues, deeply motivated individuals committed to nature, who have become my friends and each other’s friends over the past five years within the 10 Million Trees initiative.

With this action day, we suddenly faced such a task that we had to multiply ourselves, and we gained a number of new colleagues. We have not been disappointed by any of the newcomers; on the contrary, we are enriched and evolving with them.

I feel the greatest gratitude and appreciation for the incredible work ethic of Franciska Hervai and Gabi Kéri. 
They are fantastic women, true pillars of the foundation, and primary representatives of the cause.

And I could certainly list many more names here, and I should, but I hope they all feel that I think of them with gratitude and goodwill.

Women, and fortunately sometimes men now, who have dedicated countless hours, attention, and energy over the past weeks and months to ensure that today’s event would be such a success.

And thanks to all the outstanding public figures, I would like to highlight our ambassador from the very beginning, Lia Pokorny, and my old friend Péter Geszti, who have spread the word about National Tree Planting Day far and wide.

Thank you for that! Without them, we certainly would not have reached so many sensitive and empathetic people.

POLITICS AND US

As is almost self-evident in connection with such a significant and evidently popular event, daily politics touches us, despite all our original intentions. 

What is particularly frustrating is when there are those who only watch or see which political party representatives participate in our events. It is not vanity, but a commitment to reality and truth that makes us annoyed in such cases. Therefore, we particularly appreciate it when we are informed correctly.

Wherever we could, we have stated: the trunks of the trees are circular; they have no right or left side.

Just as there is no right or left side to the climate catastrophe, drought, or flood. We have one world, which we generally overload and sometimes destroy. And this Earth does not care whether we cause harm from the left or the right. 

And conversely, on such creative days, when we wish to be kind to the Earth and nature, it doesn’t matter how we vote otherwise.

At 10 Million Trees, we like to think of our work as planting trees in the ditches we see. Trees that will work for the benefit of everyone in the future.

EVERY POLITICIAN SHOULD PLANT!

During all our previous plantings and initiatives, we have cautiously avoided slipping into the harmful magnetic field of party politics, where we have no business, and being pushed by careless, superficial opinion-makers. 

Now, however, we are changing that.

We invite all representatives of the country’s Christian Democratic, Fidelitas, Tiszasziget, Civic Circle, DK (and who knows how many other political formations or sympathetic communities exist) to come and plant with us next time, for themselves, and thus inevitably for each other, for the benefit of humanity.

Next year, in the election year, we will also hold National Tree Planting Day. Come on, show every political community that they are responsible and caring for nature, the future, and the living environment of our children tomorrow!

HOPE

We are living in an extremely contradictory, turbulent period. I know, because I see and have experienced that against the anxiety-inducing news, all those thousands who came out to plant trees today, who came out into the open under the early spring sunshine, are much less affected by the negative impacts pouring down on us from the media and politics.

Tree planting cannot help but promise hope!

It cannot help but convey the message that there is and will be a tomorrow. That humanity, no matter what monsters we perceive breaking into our space, has a better self. 

There is a beautiful side to today’s human existence as well. And that better self is not helpless or drifting. Yes, we can grab the shovel, go out to the park, the edge of the forest, the open space, and plant trees. We can establish a connection, a personal alliance with nature, and find our true place under the sky arching above us.

Today, thousands of us experienced this. Together with children, dogs, families, friends, and neighbors. It was beautiful and uplifting. I wish that more and more people join us for these good feelings.

I sincerely thank everyone who participated.

We will meet (at the latest) next year, on the second National Tree Planting Day.

Iván András Bojár – 10 Million Trees, Founder