Moon trees

People express care for the environment by volunteering to plant propagules in mangroves. They join such tree-planting activities in coastal communities organized by companies or civic societies. In Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, mangrove reforestation is being done on a massive scale, but not manually. The project, dubbed the Abu Dhabi Mangrove Initiative, which aims to plant 100 million mangrove trees across the country by 2030, distributed over six million mangrove seeds in the capital city in 2023 using customized drones, CNN reported.

The use of drones to scatter seeds was preferred because sending large groups of people to sensitive natural areas risks disrupting the ecosystem, according to CNN. Moreover, drones can travel long distances and access more remote areas ideal for planting.

Dr. Amna Almansoori, a marine scientist at the Environment Agency–Abu Dhabi, estimated the capital city’s present mangrove area to be 17,600 hectares.

Meanwhile, the United States Forest Service’s (USFS) research stations in Mississippi and California germinated 500 loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum, redwood, and Douglas fir seeds in 1971.

The special seeds yielded around 400 healthy young shoots that were replanted across the country from 1975 to 1976 as part of the celebration of the country’s 200th anniversary.

A young sycamore was planted in Philadelphia’s Washington Square Park, and a loblolly pine was planted on the White House lawn, Futura Sciences (FS) reported.

Many planted trees vanished over the years through land development, disease, or extreme weather.

Nevertheless, the USFS proved that the seeds carried aboard Apollo 14, which went around the moon in 1971, exposing them to zero gravity and space radiation, grew normally on Earth.

In 2022, a second batch of so-called Moon Tree seeds was carried around the moon aboard the Orion spacecraft during space agency NASA’s Artemis I mission, and foresters are currently growing the seedlings to distribute to schools and public parks across the country, FS reported.