More trees for Colorado - Clippings

American Forests, Wntr, 2003

What do trees, kids, veggie meals, and an organic supermarket have in common? In Colorado, it's an effort to plant trees to educate schoolchildren and help the state recover from this year's devastating wildfires.

During tree plantings at Carlos M. Cole Middle School in Denver and the Shepard Waldorf Elementary School near Boulder, Natural Touch Veggie Foods and Wild Oats Markets announced they will partner to plant 60,000 trees over the next two years. The trees, to be planted around Denver and Boulder, will be part Of AMERICAN FORESTS' Wildfire ReLeaf campaign.

Wildfire ReLeaf is an ecosystem restoration and tree-planting initiative designed to plant millions of trees in environmentally sensitive areas scorched by recent wildfires. During the 2002 wildfire season nearly 7 million trees were destroyed in the western United States. Proceeds raised from the sale of Natural Touch products at participating Wild Oats Markets during the period of September 6-12 helped fund the tree-planting donation.

"We strongly stand behind initiatives that support the health of our consumers and restore our nation's natural resources," Linda Freybler, director of marketing for Natural Touch, said. Over the last two years, Natural Touch has planted 20,000 trees through Global ReLeaf.

"Part of our mission at Wild Oats is to support health and well-being among our customers, employees, and in our surrounding communities. This includes doing what we can to help protect the environment," added Terry Maloy, chief marketing officer at Wild Oats Markets, Inc.

Natural Touch and Wild Oats Markets also planted Living Classrooms at the two schools. AMERICAN FORESTS' Living Classrooms provide schools with the progeny of trees connected with famous people or historic places. The historic lineage of the trees offers schools a way to combine environmental lessons with history, science, geography, math, and the arts. Colorado State Forester Jim Hubbard and state Urban Forester Ralph Campbell also attended the tree plantings and talked with the students about wildfire and the importance of forest restoration.