Overhead close-up of eight gloved hands in red, orange, grey and green work gloves reaching in to pat down bark mulch in a circle around the base of a slender young tree, with grass at the edges.

Signature program · Restoration & resiliency

The only program in the world replanting what disasters take

Disaster relief usually stops when the debris is gone. RETREET® starts there — bringing neighbors together to replant the trees a storm, flood or fire took, so the streets that lost their canopy get it back.

RETREET®

Working with local partners, Keep America Beautiful and RETREET® are focusing on a new strategic priority: community restoration and resiliency.

An October 2020 report by the United Nations notes a disturbing trend that natural disasters are occurring with greater frequency—3x more often than 50 years ago—and, unfortunately, with greater intensity and complexity, affecting more and more people.

Given this, the time to focus on community restoration and resiliency is now.

RETREET® is the only program in the world redefining disaster relief by engaging communities to replant lost trees.

Come Plant With Us!

We bring community volunteers together to form small teams, train them on how to effectively plant native trees, and work to plant these trees in areas that have been impacted by natural disasters. Replanting and restoring our communities help keep them healthier and more resilient, literally growing deep roots to anchor and stabilize flood-prone areas, lessen erosion, and improve natural resiliency.

Educating our neighbors on how to plant trees and maintain them is work we love to do. Sharing the importance of the role trees play within our communities in combating natural disasters is our passion.

to learn more about the program and to find our next planting event.

Low-angle shot into bright sun of three people kneeling in the dirt around the thin trunk of a newly planted tree, spreading a weed-barrier mat; a woman in a blue t-shirt and camouflage leggings leans in from the right.

Make A Difference That Lasts Decades

Tree planting is an enjoyable and physically engaging activity, and proper planting techniques are easily taught. That newfound knowledge will last a lifetime and will encourage volunteers to become greater stewards of the environment. On site, the impact each volunteer makes will last for generations to come.

Learn more about community restoration

Eleven volunteers of mixed ages, in green, yellow and blue t-shirts printed with a stylised tree emblem, pose with shovels and a red bucket around a freshly mulched sapling in a front garden; a red bucket reads MORE DOING: FILL, DO, REPEAT.

For our volunteers: Please keep the following in mind:

RETREETs take place in communities in which local volunteers are rebuilding their lives, often in the midst of total devastation.

Remember the extreme emotional toll such loss takes on those whom we are helping, and be sensitive to such pain when the desire crops up to take photos or remove an item from a property. Ask politely if you feel it is appropriate.

Each volunteer is an ambassador of our organization. We kindly ask that you act as such.
Let us know ahead of time if there is something you will need.
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes you do not mind getting dirty.
Do not be afraid to ask questions.
Check the weather and dress accordingly.
If you bring your own shovel or other equipment, make sure it is marked.
Bring sunblock.
Smiling is contagious.

Come plant with us! Take action today!

Affiliate Network

Individual Action Center

Partners for Change

Working with local partners, Keep America Beautiful and RETREET® focus on a strategic priority the rest of disaster response tends to skip: community restoration and resiliency.

Why now

An October 2020 United Nations report records natural disasters occurring three times more often than fifty years ago — and with greater intensity and complexity, affecting more and more people each time.

Come plant with us

We bring community volunteers together into small teams, train them to plant native trees properly, and put those trees into the ground where a disaster took them. Replanting grows deep roots that anchor flood-prone ground, lessen erosion and rebuild a neighborhood's natural resilience.

The knowledge stays

Tree planting is enjoyable, physical work, and good technique is easily taught. That knowledge lasts a lifetime — long after the event, the volunteer is someone who knows how to plant a tree and why it matters.

Nine volunteers, several in yellow and blue Team Rubicon t-shirts and holding shovels, gather smiling around a freshly mulched sapling in a suburban back garden, houses behind them.

Why restoration, and why now

The problem is getting bigger, not smaller

3×

More often

Natural disasters now occur three times more frequently than fifty years ago (UN, October 2020)

Only one

Program like it

RETREET® is the only program redefining disaster relief by engaging communities to replant lost trees

Decades

Of shade

A tree planted at a RETREET outlives the event that made room for it — the impact is measured in generations, not in a season

Frequency figure: United Nations report, October 2020, as cited by Keep America Beautiful (kab.org/our-signature-programs/retreet/). Keep America Beautiful publishes RETREET®'s trees-planted counts on its Restoration & Resiliency page rather than here — see /programs-impact/restoration-resiliency for the total and the per-state board. The remaining cards state the program's scope, not measured output.