GREEN TREES

Roy Green loves trees. The New York state native is director of stewardship and sustainability at materials company Gunlocke, and he says growing up around his grandfather’s heavily forested estate made him realize forests are “special places that need to be preserved and protected.” In early October, Green traveled to Springfield to speak at the 11th Annual Green Symposium, a gathering of environmentally minded businesses, and during his lecture, he promised to plant a tree for every person at the event. In total, Green planted more than 100 trees in his home state last weekend, including 25 filbert (hazelnut) trees, 25 pecan trees, 25 bae berry (barberry) shrubs and 25 apricot trees. Those 100 trees are in addition to 125 black and English walnut trees and more filberts he’ll be planting soon. “I travel a lot for work and even though I buy carbon offsets for my travel, I don’t feel a personal connection to those offsets,” Green said. “Climate change is hard to get your head around in terms of ‘what you can do.’ One simple thing that I can do is to plant some trees to offset some of my climate impacts. Anyone can plant a tree.” Green also says Illinois used to be about 40 percent covered in trees before much of the land was cleared for farming. Now only about 12 percent of the state is covered with trees. “To me, these statistics point to a tremendous opportunity for the people, farmers and businesses of Illinois to plant trees,” Green said. “If my small gesture will inspire one person to plant a tree or two, it will be well worth it.”