Planting the trees of Kenya

Planting the trees of Kenya : the story of Wangari Maathai / Claire A. Nivola. –New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008.
[32] p. : col. ill. ; 24 x 28 cm.
"Frances Foster books."
ISBN: 9780374399184

1. Conservationists -- Kenya – Biography. 2. Green Belt Movement (Society : Kenya). 3. Maathai, Wangari, 1940- . 4. Tree planters (Persons) -- Kenya -- Biography. 5. Women conservationists -- Kenya – Biography.

337.72092

Wangari Maathai grew up on a farm in Kenya where the trees were green and the streams were clear. But when she came back from college in the United States, she found that most of the trees had been cut down. Instead of small farms there were large plantations growing tea to export. But without the trees and their roots the soil was blown away and washed into muddy streams. So she organized women to plant trees. Soon the rest of the family joined in the work and Wangari was giving away seedling trees to schoolchildren and soldiers to plant. She had started the Green Belt Movement.