Since 1995, DTE Energy has planted more than 20 million trees in Michigan alone. We're also active participants in reforestation projects in Belize and the lower Mississippi River Valley.
Why? To make a difference.....
Trees absorb carbon dioxide, keeping it out of the atmosphere. They provide shade and wildlife habitat, beautify our communities and aid in energy conservation when planted in proper locations.
In 1995, we voluntarily joined the U.S. Department of Energy's Climate Challenge Program. We pledged to plant ten million trees by 2000. We achieved that landmark in mid 1999, in one of the most aggressive tree-planting campaigns in the nation. Three and a half more years, and another ten million trees later, we hit a 20 millionth milestone in 2002.
And we're still planting -- on state land (in partnership with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR)), on our properties, on properties owned by large industrial customers, at schools and at other public places. Since 1988, we have funded a Tree Planting Grant program that has awarded more than $450,000 to Michigan communities.
| Twenty million trees… |  |
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 | equal more than two trees planted per Michigan resident (2000 census population 9,938,444) | |
| would create a forest more than 44 square miles (700 trees/acre), the size of the city of Grand Rapids | |
| absorb 135,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year and produce 98,000 tons of oxygen | |
