The Vikings have planted a lot of trees in the past twelve months

Hat tip to The Viking Age for getting this one first.

Over the past twelve months, the Minnesota Vikings have been part of a program to help bring some green back to the environment. According to the team’s official website, the organization has planted nearly 13,000 trees in ten communities across the state of Minnesota. The last of the trees were planted near Highwood Hills Elementary, where 18 trees were planted.

The story from the team’s website said that 800 of the trees were “substantially sized trees,” while over 12,000 seedlings were planted at Chippewa National Forest.

The final installation was headed up by an all-time Vikings great, as running back Chuck Foreman was on hand to help out.

The National Football League launched a program to do this in every Super Bowl city since Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville. Since then, a golden shovel has been passed to the city that is set to host the next Super Bowl, and they set about the business of getting the trees planted. In keeping with that, the Vikings are now set to pass the shovel off to the Atlanta Falcons, who will host Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this coming February.

Always nice to see the community and the team get involved in a project like this one. Hopefully these efforts won’t come to an end just because the Vikings no longer have that golden shovel in their possession.