Czech Scouts give away small tree plants in celebration of Earth Day

In celebration of Earth Day, the Czech Scout Association handed out small tree plants at several metro stops in Prague on Thursday. People can take the trees and plant them at a location of their choice, making their city greener. Participants of the project “Growing Up Among Trees” can also send in photographs of the tree they planted, which will be collected and published on the scout association’s website. Jan Žáček is a scout member and was at Prague’s Náměstí Míru event, where some of the 2000 trees were handed out.

“The Czech Scouts in Prague will be standing at a few metro stations and will be handing out small tree plants to people interested in planting them somewhere. We are going to celebrate Earth Day and we would like to invite other people to celebrate it. Later, we will publish pictures of planted trees in Prague or elsewhere on our website so people can share with others how it is going.”

That’s quite nice to have this element of people being able to send in pictures of their tree. How many trees are you giving away?

“We have about 2000 small trees that we would like to give to people. This is the first year that we are doing the project, so we are looking forward to what’ll happen next year.”

I believe this is connected to a cycling event that will take place today as well. Can you tell me a bit about the collaboration there?

“At six o’clock at Náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad, a big cycling tour through Prague will start. And the scouts will give the trees to the bicyclers, so that they can cycle through Prague with the small trees, so it connects both issues: public transport in the city and the environment.”

Do you think that environmentalism is growing in the Czech Republic? Are people aware of green issues?

“I think green issues are a big topic and the scouts like to draw attention to such topics, so environmentalism is definitely one topic we like to think about.”

Which area still needs the most work when it comes to protecting the environment in the Czech Republic?

“That’s not an easy question, but for us, it’s important to look after Prague, because it is a big city. And we like to think about how to connect the urbanism of the city with the environment and how to make Prague greener.”