Support grows for Memorial Trees - News from the World of Trees - Brief Article

American Forests, Spring, 2002

Americans reacted swiftly to the tragedy of September 11 with an outpouring of financial and emotional support. Since then the nation has sought ways to honor the victims and the heroes.

"Here at AMERICAN FORESTS, we've decided to do what we do best: plant trees," says executive director Deborah Gangloff. "The trees we plant in 2002 will serve as living legacies, as symbols of hope for peace and freedom, and they will clean the air and water for future generations."

AMERICAN FORESTS' Memorial Trees campaign, a nationwide tree-planting program to honor the victims and heroes of the terrorist assault, was unveiled soon after September 11. "We contacted our planting partners, and all agreed that planting memorial tree groves was a positive response to remember the victims and heroes," Gangloff says.

Support for the campaign has been overwhelming, with a large number of companies, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies joining the effort through tree-planting campaigns carried out in partnership with AMERICAN FORESTS.

Between April 27 and May 10, some 1,600 IGA grocery stores will participate in a special Memorial Trees effort called AMERICAN FORESTS' Patriot Trees for America Campaign. IGA customers will be able to donate money at check-out to help plant AMERICAN FORESTS' Historic Trees in their community in honor of September 11 victims. Paper trees will be hung in the stores to represent each person who donates. AMERICAN FORESTS, Historic Tree Nursery grows direct-offspring of trees that have connections to famous people and historic events.

The nonprofit Earth Day Network is working with AMERICAN FORESTS to honor America and its citizens, including the Sept. 11 victims, through its Trees Across America program. It will help AMERICAN FORESTS plant 285,510,788 trees over the next six years--one tree for every American. A similar international Global ReLeaf tree-planting effort will be launched under its Earth Day international program.

Earth Day Network coordinates Earth Day activities worldwide to promote a healthy environment and a peaceful, sustainable world.

AMERICAN FORESTS' Trees Across America program will provide environmental education materials to thousands of teachers and encourage them to raise money to plant trees in environmental restoration projects nationwide.

Teachers can also use the program to tie environmental education to American history. Every dollar the schools raise will plant one tree in an ecosystem restoration project. For each $100 a school raises, it will receive a tree grown by AMERICAN FORESTS' Historic Tree Nursery.

Earth Share, a federation of non-profits that promotes environmental education and charitable donations through workplace-giving campaigns, has launched a Tribute Trees program in partnership with AMERICAN FORESTS. The program will plant trees in remembrance of the men and women whose lives were lost on September 11 and to honor those fighting to protect the United States. AMERICAN FORESTS is a founding member of Earth Share.

In Baltimore, AMERICAN FORESTS is working with local partners on a comprehensive education, economic, and policy initiative that will include planting more than 1,000 saplings this fall in urban sites that desperately need revitalization. "Planting memorial tree groves in some of Baltimore's most desperate neighborhoods will show future generations that in the aftermath of such tragedy, we grew even more committed to building better communities," says Ian Leahy, AMERICAN FORESTS' urban/rural projects coordinator.

AMERICAN FORESTS conducted its first memorial tree-planting ceremony in 1921 when First Lady Florence Kling Harding helped AMERICAN FORESTS plant trees in honor of American soldiers killed in World War I. Support AMERICAN FORESTS' Memorial Trees campaign by visiting www.americanforests.org or by calling 800/545-TREE.