Thirty-five members, including eight Sai Spiritual Education (SSE) students of the Sri Sathya Sai Center of Nashville, TN, participated in a tree-planting service at the Percy and Edwin Warner Parks. Sai volunteers were instructed by a park ranger on the proper way to plant trees. Armed with gloves, shovels, and buckets of sprouting saplings, Sai volunteers spent three hours of hard manual labor to plant about 400 saplings of native plants such as flowering dogwoods, redbuds, sugar maple, northern red oak, and more. These trees would serve as protective buffers for the city’s waterways, restore the natural ecosystem of the forests by controlling invasive plants, and encourage the biodiversity and integrity of the urban forests.

SSE students who participated in the activity thoroughly enjoyed their day of service at the park. One of them commented, “The tree planting seva was a great way for all of us to contribute towards reducing the effects of global warming. Persistent and collective effort will hopefully create a more sustainable Earth for everyone to live in. I will continue to live out the belief that Nature is a manifestation of God by caring for the planet just as it cares for me.”