Action 2 Impact Podcast with Gwen Jones
Time to turn “actions into impact” With the Action 2 Impact Podcast. From right down the street to all around the world, get to know the amazing people and what they are doing to make this world a better place. Have them inspire you to get out there and have your “actions” make an “impact” everywhere you go!
Action 2 Impact Podcast with Gwen Jones
Action 2 Impact Podcast Season 1 EP.3 Rotary Clubs United for planting 1Billion Trees
Time to meet my new friend Corey Kerkela a new Rotary member that in making a Inpact right from the start. He wants to join together Rotary clubs from all over the world to plant 1 billion trees, and you and your club can help.
Join us for a great chat.
Fellowshipofthetrees.org
Join me as I talk to those "amazing people turning their Actions 2 Impact all over the world. #BE THE CHANGE
Hi there everyone, I'm Gwen Jones and welcome once again to the Action to Impact podcast, the weekly podcast where I introduce you to wonderful people from all over the world that are turning their actions into impact. Well this week we're on an environmental kick. Remember a few weeks ago we learned about some wonderful seniors that are cleaning up ponds all over Cape Cod. Well this one has got more of a worldwide tinged I'm being joined today by Corey Kirkala. And who is he? Well, he is the guy who's in charge of the Rotary Club's United for One Billion Trees. That's right. One billion trees. Now, I got to tell you, Corey has not been in Rotary for very long. And to say that this gentleman is already making an impact, well, did I mention one billion trees? So join me, won't you? The podcast takes on an environmental kick this week, talking about Rotarians from all over the world and the ease and wonder of planting trees. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. I'm super excited. I am off to Florida, Vera Beach, Florida, for the record, to speak to Corey Kirkula. And I nailed his last name and he wasn't sure I could tell you. He wasn't sure if I was going to get his last name. But He is a representative of an amazing group, Rotary Clubs United for One Billion Trees, for planting, that is, one billion trees. And I don't think I, as a podcaster, do enough about the environment and what Rotary is doing in the environment. And Corey's going to fix that problem right here, right now. Corey, welcome to the show. It's so great to have you.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much. I'm thrilled to be here and looking forward to kind of sharing some of the things that I think are amazing that are going on with Rotary right
SPEAKER_02:now. So, awesome. First off, awesome. Second of all, I had originally slotted this was a fellowship, so we're going to get that out of the way. As of right now, you are not a fellowship, but maybe in the future. Is that a good way to look at it? We're crossing our fingers and our toes.
SPEAKER_00:Definitely, there's some unders... Sorry.
SPEAKER_02:The paperwork has been filled out. How do we say it?
SPEAKER_00:There's been some processes that are going on that will allow fellowships to be a little bit more broad and be a little bit more environmental and activism type of orientation. So there is the opportunity for me to reapply or for our group to reapply as a fellowship. And we may take that up eventually. But for right now, we're going forward as a major multinational Rotary program. And we set up a nonprofit to support So we're just kind of doing the best of both worlds, acting like it's a fellowship, but also bringing forth like a networking opportunity that may actually be better than fellowship.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So we got all that paperwork out of the way. So that's awesome. But of course, everybody's like, okay, that's great. We weren't privy to that conversation. So we don't know what all that means, but... We would like to find out about a billion trees. Now, first off, I also want to throw you under the bus that you've only been a Rotarian for 18 months. So you've been a Rotarian for 18 months. You've already put together a coalition of tree planters and you're on the podcast. Not necessarily in that order, but that's that's pretty good for 18 months. I just got to say.
SPEAKER_00:And I've been president of my club for a couple of months. And so we're doing some big things. The program's already in over 100 countries with members right now. It truly is an international rotary, almost, I don't know, it's just taken a life of its own at this point. And I'm just excited to kind of me and my team try to help direct it into becoming something that hopefully is very important.
SPEAKER_02:Well, let's get to the it, shall we? Because everybody's already like, damn, in 18 months, I can't get somebody to like volunteer to do the bulletin. And you have this multicultural, multi-country fast thing. Tell us what exactly is the Rotary Clubs United for planting 1 billion trees. What is it, Corey?
SPEAKER_00:So this is something that was born of almost like a near-death experience. My son and I have traveled a lot. We're both anthropologists, and we had been traveling around the world, and we almost died in a rock slide in Nepal. Wow. And afterwards, you're in Nepal, so you have a lot of time to talk with your son. And he kind of came up with the idea that we would start to offset our carbon every time that we traveled, start a YouTube channel that tried to promote things that had to do with responsible travel and environmental travel and cultural heritage and kind of respecting that. And that kind of evolved into me becoming a Rotarian. And then starting about 18 months ago to plant trees everywhere that I went with other Rotary clubs and Rotaract clubs and things like that. So what that morphed itself into was, hey, we can plant a lot of trees for very little money without even a whole lot of work if we're working with Rotary because Rotary is so networked in that maybe we should start a program that helps Rotary expand the amount of trees that it's planting. And so we started to work on that. And it all still just kind of grows. We were just in Calgary and it grew again in that we can't manage 120 different countries worth of projects where we're managing them. So now we've actually taken some of my experience with the corporate world and we're starting to build micro networks in different districts where we build district teams. We bring in university people and we bring in government people and other NGO people to allow them to get trees planted most of the time for free, it seems like lately, or really discounted places to plant them. And then anyone who wants to plant trees, we're trying to help them be able to do it very affordably, very sustainably, and hopefully offset their carbon and maybe get to a billion trees in 10 years, which is the ultimate goal.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so that was a lot of information. I already know there's people driving in their cars going, how did we go from a rock slide to a billion trees? So what you're telling me is your son, and thank goodness everybody's okay. I'm sure your son is alive and kicking and doing very well.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:What's your son's name?
SPEAKER_00:His name is Brendan.
SPEAKER_02:Way, way to go, Brendan. Thank you for surviving a rock slide. But I assume you said, well, we had this rock slide, and then after the rock slide, we had a lot of time on our hands, which turned into maybe we should do something about our carbon footprint. So how do we connect that? Because I'm sure there's some people driving in their car going, how do we go from a rock slide to maybe we should think more about our carbon footprint? Was the rock slide caused by people not taking care of their carbon footprint? Like, how did you go from one to the other?
SPEAKER_00:If you're in Nepal... you see some of the most wonderful humanity and examples of uh of culture and the food is amazing and the air is clean but the pollution was really heavy and so it really kind of started with hey there's a whole lot of pollution here and there was
SPEAKER_02:okay wait wait you just said the air was clean but you now said there was a whole bunch of pollution here i'm
SPEAKER_00:There's a lot of pollution as far as like people who are trekking and they're just throwing things. They're just throwing stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And the lack of infrastructure to be able to get rid of garbage and things like that. So it's very dichotomous that you're in this place that feels so pure as long as you don't look at your feet.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00:Gotcha. A lot of it started out with, well, we love to do beach cleanups. And we thought, well, we'll do cleaning while we did it. We're at the
SPEAKER_02:top of the world. Why don't we clean it up up here too?
SPEAKER_00:Right. So it started out as that, and then we're both park rangers, or I was until recently, and so it just kind of evolved with our environmental ethic to where the best way for us to offset our harm that we may do as tourists is both to plant trees and also to influence people positively. as tourists and to do like a sustainable tourism type of thing, which led to planting trees. Actually, a past district governor, a friend of mine, Rick Gromas, who's on our board now, he was a volunteer for me at the job that I was doing. And we were talking about planting trees and how hard it was for me to find a place to plant trees when I would travel. So I was just offsetting the carbon back at home. And he said, you know, if you joined Rotary, you'd have 1.2 million friends all around the world who would love to plant trees with you. And we really found that, especially in Rotaract, that was definitely true. Rotaract actually is super, super hyped about planting trees. And we've actually had a part in planting three Rotaract plants. clubs.
SPEAKER_02:I was going to say three Rotaract clubs or three Rotaractors in the ground to see if they'll grow. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, I mean, like if you get the right Rotaractor in the ground, you never know, right? You know, we've got one, we've got one particular Rotaractor in Romania who we have a team in Romania to try to plant trees because their government will give them pretty much an unlimited amount of trees and plant them. So Romania is in this awesome position, but there's this kid Dragos there. And when we we meet with him, he's always like pushing the envelope. He's 18 year old actually interactor and he pushes everybody. Oh, we're gonna do a thousand trees on that planting. Let's try to do 5,000 trees. And so I think that trees and the environment in general is a really good purpose and talking point for younger people, which Rotary needs very much. So I actually see the environment as something that we need to push to the forefront of Rotary so that we can actually grow because we're all concerned about growth, especially with younger people.
SPEAKER_02:So if there's somebody who's listening to my voice who doesn't understand what you're saying when you say offset carbon, can you give the dumbiest, the carbon for dummies example of what are we talking about when we say that you and your son were so interested in offsetting your carbon footprint? What are you basically saying when you say that?
SPEAKER_00:So the nuts and the bolts of it is pretty much everything that we do, except for walking and breathing and swimming and things that don't involve other things, including just wearing clothes is going to have a carbon footprint.
SPEAKER_01:You
SPEAKER_00:can get all lost in the weeds of the politics of carbon footprint and what everybody tries to sell it as, but it's definitely something that we have emissions that are part of that. And there are a myriad of ways that you can actually offset carbon. It's just that trees is one of the most obvious it's the low fruit really when you're talking about carbon offsetting and it's done wrong in a lot of cases and so it gets a little bit vilified and so the thing about rotary there's two things about rotary that i think makes it superior to almost any other organization for doing tree planting for carbon offsetting is that number one we're in hundreds of countries 1.2 million of the best volunteers in the world. So whereas nonprofits have to struggle to find places to plant trees, as a rotary network, we don't have to struggle to find places to plant trees, right? And number two, that volunteer base is... just amazing. I was a volunteer coordinator with the park service and the finding of a volunteer, a single volunteer that fits into something is actually very difficult to do unless you have 1.2 million volunteers who are already
SPEAKER_02:willing to do it. We volunteer to volunteer.
SPEAKER_00:Carbon sequestration You can get in the weeds on it, but the simplest way of saying it is that we're all doing things that emit gases into the atmosphere that are detrimental to the environment. If we plant trees, they suck up the major offender of that, which is carbon into the tree structure itself. And therefore, as long as that tree is alive, or it's being used as timber, that carbon is sequestered. It's stuck inside of that wood and it's not in the atmosphere.
SPEAKER_02:So why trees? Have you always loved trees? Because you were a park ranger, which kind of makes sense to me, but why trees? Are trees the answer?
SPEAKER_00:I think trees are the answer, and this is a why. I'll go outside of carbon sequestration for a minute. I'll go to less traditional and less argumentative things. Trees do like 150 different services for you. They cool urban areas. They do micro cooling in their climates. They allow oxygen to go into the air. You know, they aid in water transpiration and water filtration and, you know, wind blocking during storms and all these different things. I think it's actually one of the few things you can do that applies to at least five of the core principles of Rotary. And so trees are just magical. And there's more and more science behind like how they communicate beneath it and make the forest work better and all the microbiomes and all these different things. But my favorite thing really is that there's a study that says if you have a tree in your yard, You live as much as three years longer than somebody who doesn't have a tree in their yard. And so the psychological effects of actually spending time looking up at the blue skies and watching the green leaves just blow around, it's just kind of magical to be in the forest. And I'd like to see more forests.
SPEAKER_02:I'm in the process of actually saving a black walnut that's in our backyard because everybody was like, oh, no, you want to cut that down because it's toxic. No, we're saving our tree. So I'll be with you on the saving of the tree part. I agree. So did you say you were an archaeologist? Did you say that as well? Okay, so you're an archaeologist and a park ranger. Or were you a park ranger and then an archaeologist?
SPEAKER_00:I was a corporate guy. after the Coast Guard and then got kind of tired of the whole corporate life and decided to go back to school to be an archaeologist and be a park ranger at the same time. And so I actually studied ecological archaeology. I studied the sustainable farming of the Maya from a thousand years ago. And it was a very interesting and eye-opening subject to both for sustainability and just for, it's kind of fun to pretend you're Indiana Jones every once in a while.
SPEAKER_02:I was going to say, do you have the hat? Do you have the wig
SPEAKER_00:or is that too private to ask? I don't have any wigs, you know, but I do have a hat that I would say resembles that and used to have long hair. And, you know, I was pretty quintessential trying to be that adventurous guy. I mean, I got caught in a rock slide in the fall, so I did a little bit. No one ever shot at me.
SPEAKER_02:That's true. Right. Yeah. had you know opened an arc around you or any
SPEAKER_00:cool stuff like that giant balls rolling after me that i have to run from
SPEAKER_02:man bomber but to say that you went from that to trees you say that trees could very well be the answer do you take that from the park ranger side of you do you take it from the archaeologist side of you or from Both like, because you took this education, this extra step in education, that's how you think you found that this tree solution.
SPEAKER_00:I think that you add science to your argument by taking education, but I think that you're always who you are. And when I was a kid, we always went to national parks and did the junior ranger thing. And I've found that a combination of experiencing other people's cultures and And experiencing the purity of nature and things has made me who I am. And I think that a lot of people would, uh, would stick with that. It's really hard if you go out there and you just go on a platform of, Hey, I love trees. Don't you love trees? Let's plant trees.
SPEAKER_02:Cause who's going to be an ass and say they don't like a tree.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I hate trees. Trees are evil. I wish the whole world looked like
SPEAKER_02:them. Hey, no one's going to want it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So really the core of what we're doing is we're saying, hey, it's actually cheap and easy to offset your carbon with trees. And we've got ways of making it sometimes free. And trees are going to make your community more beautiful. It's going to bring up your community's value for its houses. It's going to do all these great things for you. And if we can't build them in your community for some reason, because you're in Timbuktu, two or something like that, we actually figured out ways that you can help replant the rainforest. So it's just a really easy way to make the world a little bit greener. And the other thing that's in the way that we're doing it that I think is super cool is it's making connections all over the world. And so we kind of play matchmaker both in the local community with people who are outside of Rotary, but we also play matchmaker with people from different areas. And so if you need to have a partner because where you want to plant a million trees, you obviously can't afford a million trees.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:There are areas where we can partner you with people that can help to help you plant a million trees, especially if they're 10 cents a piece like they are in some places.
SPEAKER_02:So is planting a billion trees like is there some places? OK, let me let me start over by saying we have this big blue marble. And what happens if 80% of these billion trees are in this one section. And then over here, there isn't as many trees. Will the trees still do their job? Will they still help?
SPEAKER_00:They'll still do some portions of their job. Right. They're still going. So we
SPEAKER_02:really need a global tree planting.
SPEAKER_00:Right. That again is like where I think that Rotary is best positioned. And I won't name any names of organizations, but if you dig deep into a lot of these tree planting organizations that are big, big names, they're lucky to have 12 different places around the planet where they're getting to plant trees and they're planting them in mass and they're doing wonderful things. And I'm not bad mouthing them at all.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:But to have as many countries and communities as we have accessible to us in Rotary actually allows us to not only do that whole overarching worrying about carbon thing, but we also get to make our cities cooler and make it a more peaceful place to live and make it so that there's more birds chirping in our apartment window and all these different things. And so only about probably 20% of the services that trees do for you are on a global scale.
SPEAKER_03:About
SPEAKER_00:80% is on a local scale. And so we always encourage people to try to plant the trees locally.
SPEAKER_02:So... you call yourself, yourself professed a tree cheerleader. And before we get to this coalition that I know you wanted to talk to me about, you mentioned real quickly that the people who are most interested in this environmental part of things are, are interactors and rotor actors. In other words, on the show here, we call them the mythical rainbow unicorns. In other words, the 30 and under Rotarian. And so our, our, Are a whole bunch of groups not getting these youthful members because they're not concentrating on this environmental part? And if they do like engage you and your trees, they might actually get some new members. They may actually get some more energy in their group if they think more environmentally.
SPEAKER_00:My son and I speak on when we speak at conferences and things are growing your rotary clubs by growing trees or by planting trees. So I believe that on a scale of what you're saying that that's true. But I also think that the thing that we're missing with bringing young people in is purpose. and
SPEAKER_03:purpose
SPEAKER_00:that are something they're drawn to. So I don't think that the only thing they're drawn to is the environment. I again think it's kind of low hanging fruit because young people are either environmentalists or they position themselves as such on social media. And so we're tapping into something that allows them to have esteem in what they're doing and have purpose. And everybody kind of gives them a bad rap because they got their phone out all the time or whatever, trying to... That
SPEAKER_02:aren't exactly good for the environment.
SPEAKER_00:Right, right. But the thing is, like, I really see a generation that actually really wants to make a difference.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:You just have to find ways that that ties into Rotary. And that may expand their ability to do it because it's definitely expanded my ability to do it. And like I told you, my 26-year-old son was the one who came up with the Billion Trees program. So he and his cohort are very behind it. And that doesn't mean that there's not older people that are behind it because there's a lot of environmentalists that are older people. It means that it's a conduit for us to communicate to a generation that has been problematic for us as Rotary, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Well, because there's also, there's very much some environmentalists that are older. I'm pushing the 60 mark and I'm a huge environmentalist. My daughter kind of rolls her eyes every once in a while when I'm talking about plastic and all that kind of stuff. But we do have some older Rotarians that are climate deniers, which also I find very interesting. Have you had any hit back from anybody?
SPEAKER_00:A little bit, but the best way to do that is when I speak outside of Rotary. Okay. I'm normally just speaking about how great trees are, and that trees are awesome, and I don't even touch carbon sequestration, right? So let's
SPEAKER_02:just keep it simple. Know your audience, as they say in showbiz, right? Know your audience, that if you're a bunch of climate designers, but
SPEAKER_00:you like trees. Yeah. default to think that at least 90% of Rotarians have an environmental mindset. I
SPEAKER_03:think so too.
SPEAKER_00:I don't feel badly throwing around carbon sequestration as something. But when you're outside of it, if you throw carbon sequestration as the very first thing that you're throwing out there, there's so many people who will just shut their ears.
SPEAKER_02:They'll just glaze over.
SPEAKER_00:They're like, oh, carbon sequestration equals global warming equals let's argue about this. And so I find that when you're speaking outside, you're saying, hey, let's go plant trees. It's the same as when we try to do programs with Rotary Clubs and things like that, because all our programs are with Rotary Clubs. When you put the public things out there, we don't talk about carbon sequestration ever. It's like, hey, park, we're going to put a thousand trees in this park and there's going to be more birds and people are going to be happy. Kids are going to play in the shade. And Everything's going to be like greener and more beautiful, which is absolutely how you need to sell trees outside of an organizational level. At an organizational level, we've found that the average Rotarian would offset their rotary carbon footprint with just eight trees per person.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. Well, that makes me feel good. I could plant eight trees on my behalf.
SPEAKER_00:Sometimes like, and then they think, oh, well now I have to plant a hundred dollar tree. So now it's been spending$800, but we're getting some, we're getting a lot of trees for free, like millions of trees in the last two months we've found free.
SPEAKER_02:So, so where do you get those trees? I mean, cause we're obviously talking seedlings. Now I, my past friends, where I used to live was Washington State. And Washington State has a thing that if you cut down a tree, you have to plant 10 in its place. So you'll see people after a major cutting, you'll see tons of timber people, timber men and women planting seedlings all up and down a hillside, all up and down a hillside. So getting trees there was pretty easy. But where do all these trees come from? Some that are Like who's growing them? What are they? A
SPEAKER_00:lot of times it's government or it's, I mean, you're, you're almost always getting seedlings from governments or nonprofits. If you're going for bigger trees, then what you want to do is try to exercise your network with landscapers and find a way to get a tax deductible, all those kinds of things. And we do that sometimes, but most of the time, like for instance, in Florida, In Florida, because I was park service, I know exactly who to go to for at least certain kinds of trees. And so I get those trees for about 25 cents a piece.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And in America, 25 cents a piece is really, really inexpensive for trees. Right.
SPEAKER_02:And you're talking seedlings, just so we're all on the same page. We're not talking, you went to the local beautiful nursery and bought some fabulous Japanese maple. This is like a seedling.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And most of the seedlings that we try to get are at least a foot tall. Some of them are up to three foot tall and we can
SPEAKER_02:get
SPEAKER_00:for 25 cents in Florida. That's what Romania is giving to any Rotary Club in Romania that wants for free. So we're not talking about like tiny little seedlings, but But something that's maybe a foot to three foot tall has a foot to three foot of root mass or whatever, things like that. Those are the best. A lot of people think that you have to plant a really big tree because that big tree is a lot more likely to live. And plus you have a better picture for Instagram or whatever. But if you study it, you see that over 30% of those big trees die. Wow. And so no matter what you do, you're going to take care of them. They go through shock. They've also been inside of a nursery where they've been babied for four years and now you're in a normal environment. So you're going to lose a certain percentage of those trees and maybe you're paying a hundred dollars for this tree, right? So I buy a seven foot tree. It's a hundred dollars. I put it in the ground. It has a 70% chance, let's say roughly of living, right? For that price. I could get hundreds of seedlings, plant a diverse micro forest, right? And 30 years down the road, I probably have 30 times the amount of trees. You might have lost, let's say you lose 70% so that you're totally at the different thing. But if you lose 70% of 25 cent trees compared to 30% of$100 trees, you're making a whole lot more impact by planting a bunch of seedlings, especially if they're native. if they're accustomed to the environmental conditions that you're in. A lot of our stuff that we're doing is in county parks, national parks, state parks, especially a lot of state park stuff in Florida because we just started a few months ago. But we do have some really big things coming up in Brazil, India. Of course, I'm working with the team in Romania. We've got teams starting in 103 countries, I think, right now. So we'll have trades going up all over the world here pretty soon. The other part of this is nobody's tracking how many trees that Rotarians plant around the world. And we were trying to sit down, a few of us, and discuss like what we thought. We think they're probably planting six or seven million a year, which was the number they got to when Ian Risely was the president. But it could be as much as 20 million trees because really nobody's counting them. And we found some very large trees. projects that were already going on that we're trying to wrap into and see if we can scale or see if we can learn from and things like that. So we're already planting a lot of trees as Rotarians, but we're only like at the tip of the iceberg of what we could do with 1.2 million people who are engaged in trying to plant some trees. Or
SPEAKER_02:how much you have done because we just don't have the data telling us how much you've done.
SPEAKER_03:So
SPEAKER_02:let me ask you a question because you did say something that 30 years from now, I mean, I would be in my 90s, okay? I don't know how old you would be. I would love to see a tree 30 years from now that I planted.
SPEAKER_03:You
SPEAKER_02:can do it. Let's do it. But the question is, is this kind of slow moving? I mean, you listen to some of the doom and gloom in the environmental world and it's too late. We've already tipped. The end is near, you know? Have another cocktail because the world is just going to hell. Is a tree I'm going to plant now make any difference if it's a little seedling like that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, so of course it does. There's two things that I really love that both have kind of to do with this. Okay. One is, I think it's a Chinese proverb or something, and it's like you never plant a tree that you plan on living under its shade. Under its
SPEAKER_02:shade, yep.
SPEAKER_00:Right? And the other one is... the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but well, you should settle for today. You know, the second best time was today.
SPEAKER_01:Gotcha.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's not going to immediately turn the world around if you are one of those doom and gloomers who think that we've got 20 years until Florida's underwater or whatever.
SPEAKER_03:Right,
SPEAKER_00:right. This isn't the answer to that. If that ends up being true, then this is for the other part of the world that doesn't end up underwater. I'm not one that subscribes to that level of gloom and doom and that kind of thing. But all it can do is good. There's nothing negative about planting a tree unless you plant some invasive tree that takes over. But I mean, if you're planting the right tree in the right place, there's really nothing negative that's going to come of that. And there'll be people who could argue that and they're like, it could fall on my house. Well, don't plant it a little further away from your house, you know?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So there's just really no negative to it. And it's such a visual and hot point for the world right now that it only makes sense for Rotary to take leadership in it because Rotary We're looking for things to take leadership in. And I really think that we're better structured than almost anyone who's trying to tackle trees right now because of how widespread and how amazing our people are.
SPEAKER_02:So we have those amazing people. And I would be really remiss if I didn't include in this podcast something that we talked about before we went on air today. And that is that you... are a huge person on trying to get a coalition together of some of these environmental groups. And I'm just going to put environmental group under like, you know, an umbrella. We have, of course, the hand washing and we have wells and we have all these different things. But one of our favorite fellowships here on the show was from Slovenia. There was the bee fellowship, which we had so much fun with. And we have... All of these great groups that are doing this environmental stuff, you, Corey, are the first person that said, I don't understand how come we're not working all together, which was like music to my ears. Tell me what your real master plan with these environmental groups is.
SPEAKER_00:So I wouldn't want to say that I'm the... total like driving force behind it this came from a really quick discussion between n plastic soup the bee fellowship and ourselves and then trying to draw in other people from esrag and things like that but bees trees and seas are even and will include our fresh water and seas because it doesn't rhyme to say and fresh water or whatever so water quality water preservation the need for pollinators, not just bees, and the need for trees, if we had all three of those working in concert as environmental movements,
SPEAKER_03:then
SPEAKER_00:you see a real, real difference in the environment. And so just being part of a dialect for a bees, trees and seas coalition is an honor. I do see it being something that could drive Rotary forward, especially in our seventh area of focus. But they're all like interrelated. Like it took us five minutes to come up with a project that would help with water cleanliness and plant trees and have pollinator gardens. And so it's something that you could work together. But also the thing that we're finding with the tree movement and that other friends of mine are finding with different environmental movements is once you have the network in place, then it makes everything easier. So now you are networking the networking part. You know, let's think of it like internet, right? And when you lock one network with another network, that's when it works synergistically. And to me, that's the model for all of Rotary is we don't need to have our program. We wouldn't have my club's name on the Rotary Clubs United for One Billion Trees if it wasn't that you had to have a club's name on it. Right. We actually started in three countries. This is a club who ended up being under it, I guess, because I'm the big mouth of the group or whatever. But I don't I love my club. I love that my club's name is on it, but I don't really take a source of pride from that. I really think it's that all Rotary programs should be Rotary programs and we shouldn't be competing programs. And if I can help your program do this or I can help your program do that, then let's do it. And so with bees, trees, and seeds, if that comes to fruition, because it just started in Calgary where we started discussing it, we have a big call that we're talking about it next week. But if that happens, then what it does really is it just allows that network to build and it gives you somebody to lean on. But also, if you've been to Europe, do you know about in plastic soup?
SPEAKER_02:No, I was going to talk about that after this. Go ahead and give them a plug for
SPEAKER_00:sure. I want to give them a real quick plug because if you go to Europe and you talk about anything environmental, whatever, they're like, hey, have you heard of In Plastic Soup? It's this great organization that does a whole lot of things for publicity and for actual physical cleanups and things like that of plastics and microplastics and tries to get the word out of what plastics are doing both to our bodies and to the environment in their They're fire in Europe. They're really growing like crazy in Europe. And so I had the opportunity to speak with Garrett, who runs that at the Rotary Danube Alliance Conference in Galati, Romania recently. And we just kind of, we hit it off in Calgary. We said, how do we make this bigger? How do we make this that the environment rolls to the front of Rotary? And we think that having coalitions like this that work with Ezrag with the different road reaction groups and things like that, where everybody doesn't have a proprietary ownership of some program or whatever. It just will, it'll be more Rotarian.
SPEAKER_03:Because
SPEAKER_00:I don't want to have to compete with another tree planting rotary program. I just want to see, can I help you refine some part of yours and you can help me refine some part of yours. Same goes for bees. I get bees next week, I think. So I have a totally organic kitchen garden, my whole yard. And so we don't have enough bees right now. So we're going to get some bees in and, you know, we're going to try to recycle and do all these things. So why not tie the entire environmental ethic together into a Well,
SPEAKER_02:I'm, I'm, I'm a full supporter. I'm actually kind of a believer that I think if we put environmental on the top of our seven areas of focus, things like war and peace and, you know, clean water and all that kind of stuff, we'll all kind of filter in. So, well, please.
SPEAKER_00:And the biggest thing that I would say is a takeaway from tree planting all over the world, because I've done it in five continents now. No, four continents now. Sorry, I've done it in four continents now. And when you plant trees with somebody, they realize that you care about them. You see it in their faces. We record these things. We haven't put them out on YouTube per se yet, but we record these and you see on their faces that they're just impressed that you care about them. And you're giving a tangible living legacy of how you care about them by leaving a tree where they are. And it's got to sponsor peace.
SPEAKER_03:I
SPEAKER_00:mean, I haven't gotten to do it in anywhere that was traditionally not at peace with America to test that part of it out. But if you have friendships around the world, then you have at least some conduit for peace. And we can also realize that This is going to be a little anthropological, but we're a whole lot more similar than we are different from the people that we don't traditionally have peace with. We want the same things and that includes trees and that includes our kids growing up and being happy and to giggle and play football. And I mean, like, so as many places as I've traveled and I've traveled to 53 countries, I have yet to see anywhere that has trees. more differences than similarities to us. And so the more that we're bonded and the more that we get together and we love each other and we do projects together, whether it's trees or not, the better that we're going to be as Rotary and as just a world.
SPEAKER_02:Well, amen to that. So, Corey, I got one last question for you, and I thank you so much. You're on vacation. So thank you for breaking in, letting me break into your vacation for this interview. What do you think the world would look like when that billionth tree goes in the ground? What does that world look like? I don't know. I mean, is it like a chain reaction? Like, is it the hundredth monkey and you put that billionth tree in and all of a sudden the world is a beautiful place?
SPEAKER_00:No, if it was the fourth trillionth tree, you know, then we might see something like that. I think that it's more about What does Rotary look like if they're able to combine forces to do this? I think Rotary both grows, but it also grows metaphysically, right? It becomes an organization that maybe both has more people, but also has more voice. And there's other programs that are trying to do a billion trees. There's governmental programs, there's a billion trees, things like that. Now, if all of those are successful, then maybe we have a much greener world and the hurricanes calm down or whatever it is that's going to happen. But I really think that... it's making whatever contribution that we can make as Rotary. And if we can get to a billion trees by 2035, then maybe we target planting a billion trees a year and see if we can get there in 10 years. And so I think it's just a growing opportunity for us as Rotary. And it's a way to say, hey, We really do believe in this environmental area of focus, and we really would like to make a difference there and make the type of difference that Rotary can make instead of the type of difference that a bunch of disparate programs within Rotary can make.
SPEAKER_02:A growing answer, all pun intended, right?
UNKNOWN:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Corey, thank you so much for being on the show. I love it. It is the, let's get this Vera Beach. So Rotary Clubs United. for planting 1 billion trees. And if anybody wants to get a hold of your group, can we just like club runner the Vero Beach, Florida?
SPEAKER_00:There's five clubs in Vero Beach. I belong to the Oceanside one, but also you have my contact information, I think, but if not, we can put it down in the bottom. And they can go to the fellowshipofthetrees.org.
SPEAKER_02:fellowshipofthetrees.org.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. That is the nonprofit that supports the program. But the best thing I would say is if you'll put my email in the bottom, it still hasn't outgrown me answering the emails. So they can just email me and I'll get them with either me or one of my team. We'll start working on their district team to plant the trees and see if we can do some magic. I know our district particularly, it looks like Almost every club is about to join. We're going to join forces to plant 10,000 trees in Florida as a fundraiser to plant a quarter million trees a year in Brazil.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:You can do really magical like rotary math things when you put your efforts and your money and all those things together.
SPEAKER_02:Fellowshipofthetrees.org. Corey, the self-proclaimed tree cheerleader. Thank you so much for being on the show. It's been an honor to have you.
SPEAKER_00:You're welcome. It was an honor to be on here and I appreciate it. And I hope that your newly marketed podcast goes off really, really well.
SPEAKER_02:Well, thank you. The old name seemed to do pretty well since 2019. Let's hope the new one does too.
SPEAKER_00:We all evolve.
SPEAKER_02:That's right. Yes, we do, Corey. We all evolve. Thank you so much for joining me on the show today, you guys. Hey, what do you think one billion trees and the way cory talks about it we have over a million people and rotary is growing so just like the growing of rotary we could grow a tree i mean let's just face it let's think of the numbers here people if every single rotarian just planted one tree we'd be up to two billion two two two million if everybody planted two trees if every rotarian planted five trees We'd be halfway there. Over. Excuse me. Maybe close to three quarters of the way there. Anyway, let's think about it, shall we? Let's plant a billion trees. And Corey is there to help us. The Rotary Clubs United for Planting One Billion Trees. Thank you so much for being on the show this week. And thank you so much out there for listening. Hey, if you liked the show, whatever it was named, please get others to... Join us in the listening party. Have them download us and rate us. As I've told you a million times, that makes it easier for everyone to find the Action to Impact podcast. And if you'd like to hear my more musical side, check me out on the radio. I have a weekly radio show on Rotary Radio UK. Alright then, until next week. As I've said before, take care of yourself and the world around you and we'll hear you next week on the Action to impact podcast. Have a wonderful week, everybody. Thank you so much for being out there listening. We'll talk to you soon.