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I remember in the mid-90s when I had the great fortune to be a Peace Corps Volunteer and live with the village communities of the Toubkal municipality in the High Atlas Mountains.\u00a0 The people expressed how fruit tree revenue far outweighed what they generated from growing barley and corn using traditional methods.\u00a0 We also learned that other mountain farming communities in other valleys, were planting cherry trees and fairing better economically.<\/p>\n
In 1995, our project together paid $1.20 per tree.\u00a0 Ten years later, the High Atlas Foundation supported the people in their building of a walnut and almond tree nursery in loving memory of former Peace Corp Volunteer\u00a0Kate Jeans-Gail<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and her dear mom, Victoria.\u00a0 And now another twelve years later, and 3.5 million seeds and trees planted in 23 provinces, we can now grow a fruit seed in a community-managed nursery for 20 cents.\u00a0 This price includes the costs of monitoring its growth, grafting it, and ensuring its best life and production.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve learned the processes to secure land for the people\u2019s nurseries. We\u2019ve learned how to maximize growth of these organic and endemic seeds, utilizing greenhouses, solar-power pumps, pressure-drip systems, the in-kind hard work of local people, and partnerships with government, companies, and the people\u2019s associations.<\/p>\n The rains this season in Morocco have come; they came again this morning, and we are thankfully still in December.\u00a0 All of this is to say the following:\u00a0Give<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n Give to plant trees that nourish us and save our planet.\u00a0 Grow with us trees that employ us and bring us opportunity for all.\u00a0 And\u00a0plant even more<\/a><\/span>\u00a0than you thought you would for the sake of transitioning beyond what so often feels like endlessly burdensome rural poverty that\u00a0keeps girls from school<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0water<\/a><\/span>\u00a0way too often far and unclean, and\u00a0young people<\/a><\/span>\u00a0leaving their villages against their own dreams to work in cities that separate them from their families back at home.\u00a0 Tree-planting is magical, and is among other essential actions for sustainable development.<\/p>\n Give<\/a>\u00a0many hundreds of dollars, and give fruit forests.<\/p>\n And since many of these trees do live for centuries, and since all of us may not outlive them, let\u2019s also give in memory and loving thought for those beautiful souls that might\u2019ve planted this season.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to\u00a0give<\/a>, as the rains have come.<\/p>\n Yours faithfully,<\/p>\n![\"img2\"](\"https:\/\/i.postimg.cc\/8c11pwNb\/Sans-titre-2-02.png\")
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