Dedicated to the goal of preserving the open road for future generations of riders, Harley-Davidson is mobilizing its riders worldwide to help plant 50 million trees by 2025. The initiative, called Renew the Ride and announced last week, is the latest global mission and call to action for Harley riders.

The Milwaukee-based motorcycle company is rallying its owners and dealers to dedicate time, donations and organizational efforts to help a new partner, The Nature Conservancy, reach the ambitious goal of its global Plant a Billion Trees program.

As part of this initiative, The Harley-Davidson Foundation has committed to contributing a series of annual grants totaling $550,000.

“A central part of motorcycling is experiencing the great outdoors; to see the world from behind the handlebars is unlike anything else,” said Mark-Hans Richer, the company’s chief marketing officer. “We are dedicated to preserving the open road for future generations of riders. Our partnership with The Nature Conservancy gives us an opportunity to mobilize our global community to help achieve this mission.”

The Nature Conservancy is a natural fit for Harley-Davidson since nearly one-third of U.S. Harley owners already belong to or support a conservation organization.

“They are an exceptional community that prides itself on banding together and supporting organizations like ours,” said Geof Rochester, managing director, The Nature Conservancy. “Harley-Davidson has made a major commitment to helping restore some of our planet’s most important places. We are grateful for their assistance and support as we expand the Plant a Billion Trees campaign to restore forests across the globe, one tree at a time.”

Since 2008, The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees program has reforested more than 14,000 acres of land and planted and restored more than 14 million trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest. The focus has been to restore the world’s most critical forests with special focus in Brazil, and the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China and the United States.

To launch the partnership, Harley-Davidson riders and dealers planted 1,000 longleaf pine trees in South Quay, Virginia. Renew the Ride has immediate plans to plant 110,000 trees (approximately 200 acres) over the next few months.

The Harley-Davidson community is known for its prowess at local fundraising. Also, nationally it has raised more than $91 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association since 1980 and more than $1.3 million for breast cancer support organizations more recently.

Photos by Luc B (top, via CC license) and Harley-Davidson (bottom) 

by Good News Network - November 5, 2014

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