American Forests 125 Years Of Conservation Leadership Annual Report 2000

American Forests, Summer, 2001

On September 10, 2000, AMERICAN FORESTS marked 125 years of leadership for forest conservation. We are proud of our rich heritage as the nation's oldest nonprofit environmental organization and especially proud of our record today as a world leader in planting trees for environmental restoration. AMERICAN FORESTS was founded in 1875 by physician John Aston Warder Cleft) with a small group of citizens who had as their goal the protection of forests from "waste and abuse" and "the propagation and planting of useful trees:' Today, trees and the challenges of ensuring healthy forests are as important as they were 125 years ago. In 2000, AMERICAN FORESTS worked hard to meet these challenges through our program centers and policy work, documented in our quarterly magazine, American Forests, as well as on our website, www.americanforests.org.

GLOBAL RELEAF CENTER

The Global ReLeaf Center helps people improve the environment by planting trees.

With support from Eddie Bauer, Triangle Pacific, IKEA, and a host of individuals, organizations, and agencies, we planted nearly 4.5 million trees in 2000 on public lands to restore damaged forest ecosystems. We launched Wildfire ReLeaf, a tree-planting initiative that encourages citizens, businesses, and others in the private sector to help plant native trees in forest ecosystems damaged by the wildfires of 2000.

In partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and state foresters in the Chesapeake Bay region, we implemented Chesapeake ReLeaf, a program to provide grants to local communities to restore and protect forests in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

With support from ExxonMobil and Larson Juhl, we awarded international grants to plant 300,000 trees in Russia, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Germany.

We launched "A Tree for Every Child," an educational program sponsored by Eddie Bauer that helps students learn the benefits and rewards of trees and tree planting. Educational materials were used by 2,000 teachers, and students from 250 classes planted nearly 45,000 trees during 2000.

URBAN FOREST CENTER

The Urban Forest Center helps people appreciate the value of natural resources in their cities and towns.

With a grant from the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, we issued the "State of the Urban Forest 2000" report, quantifying the benefits of urban forests, The report estimates that a cross-section of 100 of the nation's urban and suburban forests are providing more than $49 billion annually in clean air and water values. We substantially increased the number of Regional Ecosystem Analyses across the country with support from the U.S. Forest Service, The Home Depot, The Turner Foundation, and others. Our analyses have revealed that areas with natural tree cover are losing trees, and dry land areas need to plant more trees to compensate for expanded urban growth.

We released version 4.0 of our tree-cover analysis software, CITYgreen. The software, which maps and measures the value of trees in cities, is now easier to use with more powerful capabilities.

EarthData and EarthScan joined sponsors ESRI and ERDAS in providing technological support and assistance.

FOREST POLICY CENTER

The Forest Policy Center helps people understand and strengthen the links between healthy forests and vital communities.

With support from the Surdna Foundation and Ford Foundation, we used AMERICAN FORESTS' Ecosystem Restoration and Maintenance Agenda to build understanding of core values and goals related to community-based forestry--with partners and within the halls of Congress.

With national and regional partners--the Communities Committee of the 7th American Forest Congress, the National Network of Forest Practitioners, Sustainable Northwest, and Forest Community Research--we helped community forest practitioners participate in the national policy arena.

We urged Congress to support community-based wildfire strategies, new national forest planning rules that promote public-private collaboration, and increased protection for national forest roadless areas.

Two long-term pilot projects were launched in 2000: a public-private partnership effort focused on community stewardship activities in the Mountains to Sound Greenway near Seattle; and a brownfield restoration and job training program in Baltimore focused on restoring "green infrastructure."

In addition to our day-to-day work, we celebrated our milestone year in a number of special ways. We celebrated our biggest and most historic trees by issuing the 60th anniversary edition of our National Register of Big Trees and by the national airing on PBS of "Silent Witnesses: America's Historic Trees," a one-hour documentary narrated by actor James Whitmore. The White House Millennium Council, USDA Secretary Dan Glickman, the DC Environmental Film Festival, and Ford Motor Company joined to launch the film at a special screening at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of the interior in Washington.

The White House Millennium Council and USDA asked AMERICAN FORESTS to plant Millennium Groves of historic trees in each state, at Versailles, and at the French Embassy in Washington and to launch Global ReLeaf Sarajevo at the White House and Operation: Silent Witness (to honor WWII vets) at Arlington National Cemetery.