Team Matooke conserves the environment with tree-planting

Members of the running club, Team Matooke, continued with one of their social causes of engaging in environmental protection by planting trees at the Botanical Gardens on Sunday.

This was their second tree-planting exercise at the facility, following the one they had last year. They planted 120 tree species, which followed their monthly 28km Kampala-Entebbe Run that they engage in every second week of every month that starts in Kampala and ends at the Entebbe Cricket Oval.

A number of their running group members braved the early morning downpour and could be seen jogging on the route as individuals and in groups, first to the gardens where each of them planted a tree before they completed the remaining kilometers.

Team Matooke president Fred Lutaaya said tree planting is something they will continue to do to support environmental conservation efforts and as a way of giving back to society.

“Me and the team that I lead are very aware that by doing so, we are trying to make people live better lives. As you know, we are very aware of climate change, but we also try to support different social organisations as a way of giving back to society, and tree-planting is something we do to conserve the environment,” Lutaaya said.

Matooke Runners 12

“We partnered with Botanical Gardens Entebbe, who have given us a footprint because this is our second kind of event we are doing with them and every time we call upon them, they provide us with the species that are supposed to be planted in the garden.

“Every tree that is planted there is used for educational and research purposes, so when we indicate that we want to plant trees, they look through their list of needs and the trees that are fading out, and it is the list that they provide. 

So, today we have managed to plant about 120 different types of species, and we hope that we are going to continue looking after them,” Lutaaya stated.

“The NARO team has told us that they now have a technology that will ensure we keep getting real-time updates on the progress of the trees even in years to come, and even through the different successions of team Matooke."

Apart from the Sunday event, Team Matooke has taken it's running a notch higher by participating in international marathons like the Stan chart-Nairobi, Kigali, Kilimanjaro, Berlin Marathon, London Marathon, New York, Cape Town, and the Comrades Marathons in South Africa