It’s that time of year again – Casey Trees Fourth Annual Watering Challenge! In 2020, we started out with a goal to water 1,000 trees. In 2021, we set our sights to a lofty 1,500. Last year, we amped up our goal and watered over 2,000 trees! This year, we’re going bigger than ever with a goal of watering 2,500 trees and raising $2,500! But our watering day is now a week-long watering relay.
As we’ve recently shared, the District’s ongoing drought, coupled with below-average rainfall, has put our beloved street trees, residential trees, and other trees across the city at risk. The scarcity of rain poses a serious threat to the well-being of our trees. To survive and remain resilient, trees need a minimum of 25 gallons of water per week (equivalent to 1.5” of rainfall).
Last year, our annual watering challenge raised $3,295 and watered 2,231 trees – well over our “$2,000 for 2,000” goal! Since Casey Trees has been fortunate enough to grow due to the increased dedication to tree planting and tree care, it has become logistically difficult to mobilize our entire Tree Operations department in one day. The watering challenge has adapted and changed, just as we continue to adapt and change to the needs of our trees!
This year, our week-long watering challenge starts today – Monday, August 7th, and will be ongoing through Saturday, August 12th. Our crew will be watering all week long, but to conserve our resources and maximize our efforts, each member of our tree operations team has only one day that counts towards the event’s total; trees watered outside of the individual’s chosen day won’t count towards the challenge.
While our dedicated crew works tirelessly (through the entire summer) to water newly planted trees, we believe that each one of us can make a difference by taking responsibility for watering and caring for trees in our own surroundings. This year, anyone can contribute to the count and help us reach our goal by watering the trees on their property, or trees in the right-of-way (street trees).
Anyone in the DMV is welcome to participate (we are watering in Fairfax, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties this year too!). Just water some trees and reach out to us! You can email your total to friends@caseytrees.org or direct message us on social media with the amount you watered! You can also send us a photo of you watering or post it to your socials using the hashtag #CTWateringWeek – for a shoutout on Casey Trees’ platforms. At the end of the week, the trees you water will be counted towards our goal. With your support, we should be able to blow last year’s total out of the water!
Grassroots campaigns like this keep us doing what we love – planting, watering, and caring for trees. We ask you to give what you can – $25, $250, or $2500! All donations go towards Casey Trees’ efforts to plant, water, and advocate for DC’s tree canopy.
We’ll be posting updates daily, so be sure to follow along on our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
