Meer Bomen Nu

The main winter activity of MEERGroen – November until end of March

The MeerGroen Foundation has been organizing tree giveaway days since 2014. Trees were given away every year in the period around National Arbor Day. Since 2020, this has been scaled up to a national level in collaboration with Urgenda & Caring Farmers through the MeerBomenNu initiative.

The method was first devised by ecologist Franke van de Laan. For years, he and his team of volunteers have rescued saplings that had no chance to mature. Since 2020, MeerGroen has started collaborating with Urgenda, under the name “Meer Bomen Nu”, and this quickly grew into a national movement.

Working with Nature

Nature produces an abundance of young trees and shrubs each year. Every oak, beech, hawthorn, willow, etc. produces thousands of seedlings every year. These have important functions: they are eaten by wild animals and insects, some survive and are the new generation of trees and shrubs. But most don’t make it. They die and decay and thus contribute to the biotope, or they are removed and chopped up as part of regular nature management.

Sorting and saving

In many places it is possible to harvest a large part of this young growth to give them a chance to grow elsewhere. Many of these seedlings are already being removed by people to create open spaces, because there are too many of a certain species or to make room for ground plants. This is usually done mechanically by site managers who are paid by the hour. Meer Bomen Nu likes to do this differently, with volunteers who carefully handle, sort and store the plants until they have a chance to grow elsewhere. Fun and educational to do, we leave behind more beautiful forests and thus contribute to biodiversity and CO2 storage in other places.

Transplanting instead of  shreding

These seedlings contain a solution for the climate and biodiversity; a way to plant more trees and faster. That is the message that the MeerGroen Foundation has been advocating for years! You just need to recognize them and transplant the excess to a place where they are wanted. For example, a chestnut tree that germinates in a dark spot in the forest is given the opportunity to grow into an adult tree by a farmer elsewhere.

Free, mostly indigenous and ecologically responsible

Using ’transplanting’ as a method, forests, hedges and roadsides can be fully planted throughout the country. All that is needed are skilled site managers or ecologists who can show volunteers the correct seedlings and how to harvest and plant them.  When planting out, a diverse mix is ​​chosen with early and late bloomers, fast and slow growers and fruit-bearing species such as elderberries, bird cherry, etc. for maximum benefit for insects and birds.

Would you like to help us save trees?

We are harvesting almost every day of the week in and around the municipality of Haarlemmermeer and Heemstede. Find all harvest and distribution days via the Bomen Planner on the MeerBomen.nu web site!