As we rolled into each town with notebook pages full of connections to local tree nurseries, planting organizations, land owners and volunteers, I think we even surprised ourselves a little.

It wasn’t an easy process, that’s for sure. We kind of made it up as we went along. That said, something of this scope has to start somewhere, so we started by “calendaring” our “ideal” itinerary and going from there.

Slowly but surely, locations to plant, key interview appointments, and tree pickups or deliveries went down on paper. Even though certain things would fall through and require us to change course a little or switch a few dates around, the process was relatively painless.

So, now that we are about 5 months away from hitting the road again to plant native trees in the 25 remaining states (note: the 25 BIGGER states), we are back to the drawing board again. We’ve got the whiteboard out, the atlas open, and we’re happy to report that the first draft of our planting tour is on the calendar!

Between March and May 2011, our planting tour will stop in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and North Dakota, Washington, and Alaska. (Phew! Long list!) In addition, we hope to swing into Washington D.C. to participate in the Environmental Film Festival happening there in mid-March.

Ideas have been sprouting as to places/trees we’d like to visit along the way, and we’re open to suggestions as we finish our goal of planting native trees in all 50 states. Feel free to leave comments with your ideas! And of course, when the tour is complete, we will celebrate with a huge tree planting event and festival on our home island of Maui (date TBD – sometime in May 2011).

To support our efforts, click here to visit our online store – proceeds from sales go to support our project! Check out our new Commemorative Tree Planting offers!

Kickstarter is a wonderful resource for creative projects looking for funding. The beliefs behind Kickstarter, are:

• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

We couldn’t agree more!

The way Kickstarter works is this:

1. We set a fundraising goal.
2. You pledge an amount you’re comfortable with.
3. You don’t make your payment unless we reach our goal.

Have a look at our project page by clicking here….and share the love!

We are completely excited and humbled by the outpouring of support as we launch the Plant A Wish project. Friends, family, and strangers are reaching out to us, and we’ve raised almost $1,000 to plant trees in all 50 U.S. states and make a film about it.

Just in the last two days, we’ve seen two incredible articles – one published in the Maui Time Weekly, the other over at OurGreenMaui.org. Sean Michael Hower took some incredible photos at our native tree sanctuary on Maui, so look for those to post to our website soon.

Sara and Joe are both currently at work on the film “Just Go With It” (featuring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston) that is shooting on Maui and while not on the film, working day and night to put together the research for the upcoming June tour through the Midwest and Northeast. Please feel free to make suggestions below in the comments box, or email Sara if you have any leads and suggestions for our list of locations.