last update 7/1/08

Take My Truck, Please!

If you’re in the market for a reliable, low mileage work vehicle you’re looking in the wrong place.  Our truck is a total roll of the dice at best.  If you get it started who knows if you’ll get it in gear?  But it’s not just unreliable.  It’s really ugly, too.  To be fair, calling it ugly is an insult to ugly trucks everywhere.  It’s ugly from every angle:  even underneath, where you’ll spend a lot of time replacing parts if you buy this thing for anything but a lawn ornament.

Worst of all, the truck is probably cursed.  The first trip we took in it we drove to northeast Texas to pick up 2000 donated seedlings.  We picked up the seedlings and the worst ice storm EVER hit.  The nursery closed behind us and we were stuck with the trees which would freeze if we stopped so we had to drive, white-knuckled at 20 miles per hour, back to Austin over what was basically a car-strewn 250 mile ice skating rink.

This truck has been used to deliver trees.  Nobody here remembers how often it’s died with a trailer full of trees attached but it was a LOT.

In a final act of evil, the truck’s alternator disintegrated in a hail of sparks while we were receiving a load of trees catching the field on fire and almost engulfing the semi truck and trailer full of trees in flames.  We replaced enough parts to make it run again but I wouldn’t drive it if I were you.  Certainly not without AAA and a vial of holy water.

Seriously, we are selling this truck along with a lot of history and some tragically funny stories as a fundraiser for our non-profit forestry organization.  We will include a truck bed full of live oak trees valued at $832.00 which brings the value of the truck to, well, $832.00.  Anything over that will be considered a tax deductible donation.  Click here to get in on the fun!

Carbon Offsets Help Erase Your Pollution

The carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of our modern society are a major contributor to rapid climate change. When fossil fuels are burned, carbon that has been locked away for millions of years is released into the air, causing the Earth’s temperature to rise and significant climatic changes to take place. We are already seeing an increase in extreme weather events, and indicators of imminent large-scale climate change, with serious implications for the world as we know it.  It is essential that each of us reduce our CO2 emissions.  However, it is not possible to eliminate all CO2 emissions immediately, so in the interim we can help to reduce the impact of those emissions that are unavoidable by planting trees.

Because trees take in carbon dioxide, split it apart, "exhale" oxygen and hold carbon in their tissues and deposit it underground, they are an excellent way to reduce excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Urbans trees also shade homes and mitigate the heat island effect which causes city temperatures to be several degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside so they save the fossil fuels that are burned for eletricity while reducing power bills.  In that way they reduce carbon dioxide even more.  At the same time, urban trees increase property values, lower other pollutants like particulates, keep stormwater runoff cleaner and provide habitat for wildlife.

TreeFolks makes it easy for you to plant trees to erase your "carbon footprint." We grow our own native trees at our Austin nursery and, with your offset purchase, we’ll plant as many trees as you need to offset your carbon emissions through our established urban forestry programs. We have an easy online carbon calculator that tells you how many tons of carbon you are responsible for and gives you the opportunity to purchase "carbon offsets" in a secure on-line transaction.

Buying offsets from TreeFolks isn't exactly like buying trees.  It's buying one of the "products" of the trees.  It's sort of like buying fruit as opposed to buying a fruit tree except, in this case, you're buying all of the fruit that the tree will ever produce.  But that's not all.  By buying offsets from our non-profit organization your purchase is subsidized by thousands of hours of volunteer labor. Your purchase is also used to support our educational programs and can be used as a "match" for grant funds, allowing us to plant many more trees and to teach people to care for the trees we already have.  Now that's value!


Please go to our ARCHIVE page for old TreeFolks news stories.