East Hawaii Branch 2021 Arbor Day Tree Giveaway

The Outdoor Circle (Statewide) acquired funding from the Arbor Day Foundation for the third iteration of the East Hawaii Branch’s annual tree giveaway event held on November 6, 2021. The giveaway provided free fruit/food trees to residents of the East Hawai‘i community. While this event started in 2019 as a response to the volcanic eruption, hurricanes and floods that took place in 2018, the event has evolved to also include a food security focus, in addition to planting trees in the areas that saw impacts from these natural disasters.

This year’s event was held on Hawai‘i’s Arbor Day so it was fitting that the Arbor Day Foundation supported it for the third straight year, with financial sponsorship by International Paper for the second time.

510 trees were given away consisting of 15 species of fruit/food trees (see species list below) obtained from Plant It Hawaii and AAO Farms, both of which provided large and vibrant trees as they have during the preceding two giveaway events. Residents from over 27 East Hawai‘i communities received trees from this event (tree distribution map) and  the feedback was overwhelmingly positive of the new online reservation system with time slots to manage traffic congestion.

Going forward, The Outdoor Circle and the East Hawaii Branch are already planning on putting on a 4th iteration of the tree giveaway and are looking forward to working with the Arbor Day Foundation, International Paper and new local sponsors to make this event even larger, which will see more local residents receive fruit/food trees which will continue to help improve food security on Hawai‘i Island.

A big mahalo once again goes out to the Arbor Day Foundation, International Paper, the East Hawaii Outdoor Circle Tree Giveaway Team, The Outdoor Circle office staff and all volunteers who helped make this event the most successful yet!

To learn more about this event, or if you know someone who would like to be a potential sponsor of next year’s giveaway, please reach out to The Outdoor Circle’s Programs Director, Myles Ritchie (myles@outdoorcircle.org), to discuss collaboration possibilities.