Hot stuff - News from the World of Trees - American Forests web site - Brief Article

American Forests, Spring, 2002

. (News from the World of Trees)

Prescribed burns, the build-up of small-diameter trees, drought conditions, the role of communities in wildfire prevention, and planting trees for environmental restoration are just some of the topics you'll find at www.wildfirereleaf.org, a recently posted subsection of AMERICAN FORESTS' website (www.americanforests.org).

Wildfirereleaf.org offers more than a dozen colorful and informative pages about Wildfire ReLeaf, AMERICAN FORESTS' international tree planting, education, and action campaign.

The Internet pages help people understand the role wildfire plays in forest ecosystems, how the threat of catastrophic wildfire can be reduced, and how individuals, corporations, and others can help restore areas scorched by intense wildfires.

This spring it will also bring stories from communities learning to live with--and deal with--the threat of wildfire. In April, AMERICAN FORESTS will join national and regional partners to show reporters another side of the fire story: the community-based side. The southwest Colorado field tour will demonstrate the complexity of the wildfire issue, the growing need for risk management, and the need to involve communities in developing long-term solutions, Look for more information about the communities the tour will showcase on AMERICAN FORESTS' website, www.americanforests.org.

AMERICAN FORESTS' Wildfire ReLeaf ecosystem restoration program supports communities and agencies' efforts to plant trees in areas that might otherwise need years to regenerate. High priority areas include stream banks and hillsides. Both areas are susceptible to erosion damage when trees are lost.

Because the U.S. Forest Service, a Wildfire ReLeaf partner, matches donations tree-for-tree, each donation to Wildfire ReLeaf provides a double benefit to the environment and woods dwellers such as the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. In 2002, more than a million trees will be planted at wildfire sites.

Learn more about Wildfire ReLeaf by visiting www.wildfirereleaf.org. ForestBytes, AMERICAN FORESTS' free monthly e-mail newsletter, provides updates about this and other programs by the nation's oldest nonprofit citizen conservation organization. Sign up at www.americanforests.org.