It’s no secret that deforestation is a major problem in today’s world. With an estimated that thirty-six football fields worth of land is burned every minute because of agriculture, mining, and urban expansion, it seems like there’s nothing we could do to stop the drastic effects of deforestation, but fewer trees means we will feel the effects of climate change, desertification, soil erosion, flooding, and increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

YouTuber Mr. Beast started a fundraising campaign called, “Team Trees” in order to fight deforestation. Mr. Beast claims that for every dollar donated, one tree is planted. Team Trees partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation which is a credible non-profit conservation group. The goal of Team Trees is to raise twenty million dollars by the beginning of 2020. Mr. Beast along with several different YouTubers have donated money and are producing content to support Team Trees. Team Trees is currently at 19.8 million dollars raised for the planting of trees.

Donors that have donated the highest amount of money include CEO of Shopify Tobi Lutke, CEO of Tesla & Space X Elon Musk, CEO of Salesforce Marc Benioff. Other Notable donors are YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, Jack Dorsey, YouTuber PewDiePie, and make-up artist Jeffree Star.

While Mr. Beast is doing his part in the fight for deforestation, here at Bassett, the non-profit organization Amigos de los Rios organizes tree-planting events for student volunteers. The interact club at Bassett, along with other neighboring schools students are working hard to plant trees and shrubs that are native to our ecosystem in the community.

These tree-planting activities take place once a month on selected Saturdays. Ms. Henderson, the advisor of Interact Club, said, “The work that they do is a good thing for the environment. The mission behind it is to plant trees and shrubs that are ingenious to this area. Once you plant native plants there’s a possibility that animals native to this area may come back. Here in Southern California we already lost thirty percent of our bird species. I think these events are important to our environment. I feel like most people want the environment to be better, but most people haven’t done anything to help. It’s just something that people say, to be honest. If you want the environment to be saved, it must be saved by everybody, not just a few people. The students here at Bassett are making a positive impact just by being here at these events.”