The Eitz Chayim Adopt-A-Tree Program
"Environmental Multitasking^TM at it's Finest"

Several years ago, Sweet Whisper Farms unveiled its Eitz Chayim Adopt-a-Tree program as an offshoot of its ag-tourism and education programs. A purchaser "adopts" a tree for a year and receives the initial "tree package" which contains a personalized, embossed adoption certificate, an aerial photo map showing the tree's location, a map and legend of Sweet Whisper Farms (built in 1780 - the oldest farm in the town), and other educational literature. During the sugaring season, the recipient then receives the Sweet Whisper Farms newsletter which details life on the farm and contains humorous articles on why we farm with horses, work with handtools, practice sustainable living, etc.

At the conclusion of the season, the recipient receives a hand-made wooden gift box containing syrup and private-labeled organic pancake mix. The price of the package is $49.75 plus $8.80 shipping and handling.

The Eitz Chayim program was the subject of an article in "O" – The Oprah Winfrey owned magazine, which contributed significantly to its initial success.

Recently, Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz, owner of Sweet Whisper Farms and director of Project Ya'aleh V'Yavo, (PYVY) Sweet Whisper Farms' not-for-profit educational arm, was invited by Robert Gough, Esq., secretary of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy (COUP) and director of "NativeWind.org", a city/tribal partnership towards climate protection and energy independence to participate in a Native American Tribal Lands Climate Change conference. The conference, which took place in Yuma, AZ, was jointly hosted by the Cocopah Nation and the National Wildlife Federation. Gough had heard him speak at the Vermont Law School Solutions Conference where Rabbi Simenowitz participated in an interfaith panel of faith-based responses to the environmental crisis. After several meetings and discussions with tribal elders from such diverse tribes as the Cocopah, Hopi and Winnemem Wintu, Simenowitz quickly realized the need to expand the scope of the Eitz Chayim's educational mission to include the maple's critical role in carbon sequestration (an adult maple can sequester up to 450 lbs/yr) given that climate change poses the same imminent threat to the sugar maples as it does to the Alaska permafrost or the spawning salmon of the Northwest.

The Sweet Whisper Farms maples are enrolled in the Vermont Current Use program and are the subject of year round forestry and teaching efforts. One of the most popular programs offered by PYVY is called the "Schach Gemach" which is a forestry and recycling teaching program. Students from area schools come to Sweet Whisper Farms in the fall and prune the invasive conifers which engulf the sugar maples. Instead of just burning or chipping the brush, it is given to the elderly to use as schach for their sukkas – clearly a win-win-win for all involved! The program is proudly underwritten by Florian Tools which graciously donated high quality tools for use in the program.

The Eitz Chayim has been used as a fund-raising vehicle by not-for-profits such as Canfei Nesharim. Sweet Whisper Farms has committed to redirect the income flow to make a contribution in an amount equal to the carbon offset from each tree to various Native American energy independence initiatives including the wind turbine radio station being constructed next spring by the Oglala Sioux at Pine Ridge, arguably the poorest tribe in the country. At least 80 per cent of tribe members are unemployed and per capita income is $6,000. Infant mortality is more than twice the national average, the teen suicide rate is the highest in the US and some estimates claim half the population has diabetes and 80 per cent are alcoholics. Life expectancy is in the late 40s for men and mid-50s for women.

Additionally, given the Jewish teaching of planting not just for today, but for future generations, a matching gift will be made to a Native American tribal reforestion effort as selected by the Intertribal Council.

In light of PYVY's tremendous success with educational building and construction projects such as Sukkat Shalom – The Sukka of Peace - timberframed by Simenowitz and Josh Boettiger, a Reconstructionist Rabbi and erected with the help of the 92nd Street Y Tiyul group and partially funded by a Hazon grant, and Sweet Whisper Farms' new sugarhouse – designed to look like the synagogue from Simenowitz' family shtetl in Eastern Europe, Gough has tapped Simenowitz to design and assist with a series of straw bale workshops featuring Native American and Jewish teens to be held next Spring and Fall. The workshops will demonstrate inexpensive, sustainable housing alternatives and will provide a forum for cross-cultural dialog.

Simenowitz said he was amazed at the similarity between the teachings of the Native American tribal elders and much of the Torah wisdom. "They appreciate the sacredness that permeates the natural world and the importance of our stewardship at this critical juncture. During the conference, Simenowitz was invited to participate in a ceremonial exchange of gifts with the Hopi elders. They gave him a vial of pristine water from the sacred Navajo aquifer that they safeguard, reputed to be the purest on earth. As he presented the tribal elder with his maple syrup, Simenowitz explained that the very same waters which course through the veins of the earth emerge as the sap of the sugar maples he stewards.

"The Talmud teaches us an important lesson about tzedaka (charity)" said Simenowitz recently. "Aniyei ircha kodmim" – the people of your own village get priority. This is about helping those in our vast, yet intimately interconnected, global village.