Hoteliers jointly plant new forest on Zuylestein Estate

Once again this winter, Hotels for Trees is working with its hotel partners and afforestation partner Trees for All to restore the forests of Zuylestein Estate in Leersum. This is necessary because a large part of this monumental forest was damaged by severe storms in June 2021. Last Friday, 55 hoteliers and other partners of this non-profit foundation participated in the tree planting day and 1,900 of a total of 6,500 new trees were planted.

Second in-house tree planting day

After the planting day together with the hotels and partners could not take place last year due to flooding, the tree planting day in Leersum was the second all-house tree planting event since the initiative was launched in summer 2021.For Linde Borger, Chief Tree Planting Officer of Hotels for Trees, this was another special moment: "Together with our hotel partners, we regularly take part in the various tree planting days organised by afforestation partner Trees for All, but it is very nice to be able to get going again today with more than 50 employees from the various hotels and loyal partners like Blycolin, Lacoly and GoTickin. It was a day full of positive energy and enthusiasm, which resulted in 1,900 newly planted trees of different species, ensuring that this new forest will soon be as future-proof as possible."

Trees instead of room cleaning

The restoration of the forests of Zuylestein Estate is made possible by hotel guests of the more than 240 hotel partners in 40 countries that have joined Hotels for Trees. During their hotel stay, they chose to skip the interim cleaning of the room in exchange for planting a tree. This green choice not only saves the hotels energy, water and cleaning products but also provides financial savings, which the participating hotels partly convert into the donation of a tree.

As a result, more than 500,000 trees have already been donated since the launch of this initiative and the foundation has been able to contribute to more than 20 Trees for All (international) afforestation projects. Stef Röell, Director of Projects and Innovation at afforestation partner Trees for All explains this further: "Hotels for Trees is one of our key partners and the 500,000 trees they have already planted are equivalent to 500 football fields of new forest, which gives a very good insight into how much positive impact this initiative has already made."

Afforestation needed due to severe weather

The afforestation project in Leersum is necessary because the estate was hit by a so-called fall wind on 18 June 2021. During severe weather in large parts of the Netherlands, a huge amount of cold air from an intensive cloud of showers crashed down in Leersum. Heavy wind gusts and extreme precipitation turned large parts of the forest on Zuylestein Estate into havoc. Much of the trees were blown down, uprooted or broken off in the process. The trees that were still standing were cracked or badly damaged. The situation was so unsafe that the province of Utrecht immediately issued a felling licence for a number of plots. Thanks to donations from Hotels for Trees, this forest can now be restored.