4 guys, 7 days, 2 countries, 1000 impressions. In summer 2018, NIKIN travelled overseas to meet Matt Hill, founder of his tree-planting partner One Tree Planted. Experience the tree-planting trip through Canada and the USA first-hand here.
Day 1: 5 August 2018
Lenzburg railway station, 8.31 am. The train to Zurich Airport departs, the adventure begins. The three boys, Nicholas, Robin and Jeffrey, are on their way to Canada, where they will visit the founder of their tree planting partner, Matt Hill, and, together with One Tree Planted, will lend a hand and plant trees themselves. Florian, the passionate photographer and videographer, will document the whole trip pictorially from NIKIN .
Zurich airport, 12.50 pm. With a lot of luck and thanks to the extremely friendly crew, the four boys make it onto the plane despite an overbooked flight and only one standby ticket and take off on time for overseas. About eight hours later, they land safely on the other side of the pond, in the Canadian city of Montreal.
Downtown Montreal, 5 pm. After moving into the centrally located Airbnb, the four of them set off to get a first impression of the French-influenced metropolis in the province of Quebec. They also use the time to prepare for the upcoming meeting with One Tree Planted and to put together the interview topics for the next morning.
Our flat, 11 pm. After an intensive discovery tour and a cosy dinner in a local brasserie, the boys find themselves in their flat, where they settle in for their first night in the "Great White North" and soon fall asleep with great anticipation for the days to come.
Day 2: 6 August 2018
Our flat, 7.07 am. Despite jet lag and the loud humming fan, the boys wake up quite refreshed and fit for the upcoming meeting with Matt in the office of One Tree Planted, which is to take place not far from the flat. A typical North American breakfast with bagels, donuts and coffee provides the final refreshment before the boys are welcomed into the office by Stephanie and Beth, two extremely friendly One Tree Planted employees.
Head Office of One Tree Planted, 10 am. Shortly afterwards, we make our first personal acquaintance with the founder of One Tree Planted, with whom we are in constant contact but have never met. With a tanned complexion, wearing flip-flops and a three-day beard, the stocky and half-Jamaican man greets us and then shows us around their offices. One Tree Planted is housed in a huge office with many other young start-up companies sharing the common space. The coffee we drink is free in the shared cafeteria, where people meet and discuss with people from other companies.
Meeting room, 10.15 am. We are seated at the large table in one of the several meeting rooms, which are also divided. Florian has installed his camera equipment and equipped Matt with the appropriate microphone. The conversation with Matt, led by Nicholas and Robin, begins. Matt talks freely about various topics, such as his personal motivation to plant trees, their financing, the last tree planting campaigns and future projects. The atmosphere is very relaxed and we also learn a lot from the conversation with Beth and Stephanie, the ecosystem and project managers of One Tree Planted.
Downtown Montreal, 5pm. After a second interview with Matt in the afternoon, the successful meeting with One Tree Planted soon comes to an end. Matt then recommends a few more places in the city to end the day on a relaxed note. We do so in a Mexican restaurant and soon return to recharge our batteries for the adventurous next day.
Day 3: 7 August 2018
Pavement in front of our Airbnb, 8.31 am. It is drizzling lightly, a real cool-down after the extremely humid previous day. A white SUV marked "Centre de la Nature - Mont Saint-Hilaire" pulls up and a young woman with curly blonde hair and a green shirt, who introduces herself as Genevieve, gets out. She has lived in Montreal all her life, but has never driven a car through the hectic downtown during rush hour. We drive off, the biology graduate tells us a few things about herself, we tell her about our project and she explains what is on the programme today.
McGill Institute at the foot of Mont Saint-Hilaires, 9:30 am. After a one-hour drive from the city, we arrive at the institute where Genevieve works and get to know her team, her concept and her projects. Mont Saint-Hilaire is a wooded hill north of Montreal. Locals, however, proudly think it is a mountain, as there is nothing around it but miles of flat forest and agricultural land. On and around the mountain , this organization has been implementing renaturalization projects for several years, removing man-made roads, buildings, agriculture and planting trees there instead, thus returning the land to nature. Among other things, we see large areas dotted with One Tree Planted funded seedlings that are carefully tended until they have grown into independent Tree . A short distance away, we march along densely wooded paths that looked completely different just a few years ago, and which have been planted with regional tree species and replanted wild with the help of many volunteers, such as school classes or scouts.
Pavement in front of our flat, 5 pm. After an eventful day and many great impressions and conversations, Genevieve unloads us back home and we thank her for her detailed and sympathetic tour through the projects and locations of Centre de la Nature and say goodbye at the same place where the second day of NIKIN in Canada began.
Day 4: 8 August 2018
Mont Royal, 11 am. Thick clouds hang over the Montreal sky as we reach the observation deck of the local city hill on our "day off". A fantastic view over the rooftops of Montreal, the harbour and the dense forests around the island on which the city is built provide the perfect backdrop to shoot great footage for our trip documentary. Later, we lose ourselves in the lively streets of Montreal and find ourselves in a café, where we discuss the rest of the programme at the next destination of our trip and then enjoy the last evening in Canada.
Day 5: 9 August 2018
Montreal Bus Station, 8 am. Our luggage stowed, we take a seat on the Greyhound bus, in which we set off in a southerly direction and reach the town of Burlington in the state of Vermont after about three hours of driving and passing the Canadian-American border. We then pick up the rental car, with which we continue our trip from now on.
Intervale Centre, 3pm. After lunch in this typically rural town, we reach the non-profit organisation east of Burlington, which is supported by One Tree Planted, among others. Chelsea and Mike guide us through the site, which was originally settled by indigenous people, later besieged as a regional landfill and only renaturalised about 30 years ago, and is now considered one of the most fertile landscapes in the USA. We gather many impressions and visit several greenhouses and plantations where the young seedlings, which are subsequently transplanted by various other partner organisations throughout the country, are grown. Since 2008, Mike, Intervale Conservation Nursery Manager, and his 25-member team have planted around 700,000 trees. There is no doubting his enthusiasm and love of nature from talking to him.
After this detailed tour, we move on to the donated SummerVale on the beautifully landscaped grounds of the Intervale Conservation Nursery, where local families gather to enjoy local food and music and enjoy the summer evening together under the dusky canopy of the open air.
Day 6: 10 August 2018
Motel in Burlington, 7.30 am. After a restful night and a typical American breakfast of cornflakes, pancakes and bagels with cream cheese, we set off with the sunrise towards Barnet, a small town in eastern Vermont, where we have an appointment with Ron from Connecticut River Conservancy, another partner organisation of One Tree Planted and Intervale.
Bank of the Stevens River in Barnet, 10 am. A huge memorial statue commemorating soldiers killed in the Vietnam War sits enthroned in the Barnet village square, where Ron, a former gardener, welcomes us and explains today's programme. He tells us what to consider when planting and the important benefits this brings.
We meet LJ, a resident of Barnet, who volunteers her land, which offers direct access to the city river. At high tide, the river suffers extremely from severe erosion, which causes great landscape damage and thus fatal consequences for flora and fauna. Planting the riverbank with local trees and shrubs counteracts this effect, because the root system of the plants gives the riverbank better support and additionally creates habitat for animals, which has a long-term positive effect on flora and fauna.
Highway, 1 pm. The last official programme point of our trip is now behind us and we are on our way to the place where we will end the One Tree Planted visit adventure, Boston. Rocky mountain peaks, endless densely forested hills, idyllic lakes and rivers. This is enough to describe the wonderful scenery that surrounds us during the several-hour drive south. The area is not called the Green Mountain State for nothing. Nothing but pure nature. Beautiful.
We soon cross the border between the states of Vermont and New Hampshire, where we make stops at breathtaking places like Beaver Pond or Hermit Lake. The pictures on the internet do not come close to reflecting the beauty of these places.
In a river, which we follow on winding country roads, we take a cooling dip and enjoy the afternoon summer sun. The atmosphere at a stop in a genuine trucker restaurant could not be more authentic. Our Hyundai looks like a mouse among elephants among the gigantic American trucks. We pull next and gradually approach the capital of the state of Massachusetts.
Beacon Hill, Boston, 10 pm. Shortly after sunset, the shimmering lights of the skyscrapers of Boston's skyline already appear in the distance, rising into the night sky. We reach our hotel in the very English quarter and let ourselves be drawn into the nightlife of the world-famous student city.
Day 7: 11 August 2018
Downtown Boston, 11 am. Rain. Drizzle, sprinkles, sometimes pouring, today it rains only once. We settle down in a café and decide what to do in this weather.
Cinema in America, a real experience! Six hours and three films later (it's still raining outside), we find ourselves in a sports bar, where we have the last supper of our trip with live baseball on the TV, American 80s hits and students playing pool.
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Day 8: 12 August
Boston Airport, 12 o'clock. The suitcases are packed, the reading material is procured and the mobile phone is set to flight mode. The "Grüezi" when we board the plane gives us the feeling of home that makes us look forward to coming home.
Home, 11 o'clock. It is simply unbelievable what we have experienced in this short week. We finally got to know our partners personally and formed real friendships. We travelled and discovered great cities, drove through beautiful landscapes and actively helped to give something back to Mother Nature. On our journey through North America, we also grew closer as a team and refreshed our spirits with many new impressions and encounters with people from all over the world. Looking forward, we are looking forward to more adventures and a great future with NIKIN.
