Wanted: Historic Seed Collectors

American Forests' Historic Tree Nursery needs your help collecting seeds from historic trees. The Nursery grows seedlings from famous and historic trees around the country, including the Tulip Poplar from George Washington's Mount Vernon home and the last surviving Apple Tree planted by Johnny Appleseed.

Now we are asking volunteers to assist us in the seed-gathering process. Collecting seeds from historic trees is an enjoyable and unique way to connect with American history. By traveling to battlefields and areas made famous by presidents, artists, or civil rights leaders, you will meet interesting people and perhaps others like yourself who want to carry on the legacy of this country through historic trees.

As an incentive for seed collectors, the Nursery will award anyone who collects from one tree with a Wave Leatherman, a travel-sized toolkit that comes in its own handy case. Those who collect from two trees, will receive a Magellan GPS unit. And those enthusiasts who collect from three or more trees, will be sent a Nikon Rangefinder, a device that allows you to determine distances, trees' heights and more. All of these fine products are our way of saying thank you for your hard work.

At the same time, you will know that your efforts will make the air cleaner, conserve soil, and create new wildlife habitats. It's a wonderful opportunity for Scout troops, 4-H and FFA organizations, too.

Find out more about historic trees near you by contacting Susan Corbett.

Does your love of trees exceed your knowledge of how to plant or care for them? By a longshot? Our Historic Tree nurseryman Jeff Meyer's The Tree Book puts the world of trees into easy, accessible language so that everyone can enjoy the satisfaction of watching a tree grow tall and strong, or broad and flowery, depending on your backyard preference (and, of course, the species of tree).

The Tree Book tells you which trees thrive in which locations and how specific varieties complement surrounding greenery. It contains useful charts and priceless tips from one of the nation's most well-informed tree experts. Order a copy today by calling the Historic Tree Nursery at 1-800-320-TREE or visit the Nursery online at www.historictrees.org and take the link to Jeff Meyer's book.

Green Partnerships

American Forests and H.E. Butt Grocery Stores of San Antonio, Texas, have entered into an agreement to help HEB celebrate its 100 years of service to the communities of Texas and Mexico. Under the agreement, American Forests will work with HEB to introduce Living Classrooms, our environmental education and tree planting program, to 40 communities in Texas as well as provide teacher training and lesson plans to implement American Forests' CITYgreen education program in schools designated by the company. In addition, HEB and American Forests will plant historic Texas trees in HEB communities to help the grocery store chain celebrate its commitment to communities throughout its marketing area.

American Forests wants to thank IKEA stores in Maryland, Pittsburgh, PA and the Washington, D.C. metro area for contributing a portion of proceeds from the sale of green plants to American Forests to help it plant trees in damaged forest ecosystems. The plant sale resulted in $34,508 to plant a corresponding number of trees.

Week in Washington, June 2004

American Forests recently sponsored the 7th annual Week in Washington to teach forest practitioners about the federal legislative and policy processes and how to participate. The event, held June 14-18, was cosponsored by the National Network of Forest Practitioners, the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, the Communities Committee, and the Society of American Foresters. American Forests recently sponsored the 7th annual Week in Washington.

Conferees attended a variety of training sessions, work groups, lectures, and presentations with an array of "capitol beltway insiders." They met with federal agencies and congressional staff to share their knowledge and perspectives. This year's group came from all over the United States and represented a myriad of cultures and backgrounds. Despite these differences, participants found many were dealing with similar issues in their home communities.

This sense of fellowship, along with a newly acquired political savvy, gave participants a more confident voice in meetings with government officials and even propelled some to go to congressional offices to meet with staffers. As the week came to a close, participants took the information they had learned in DC home to apply in their local communities, the message 'Stay Engaged' echoing in their ears.

A Little Help From Our Friends

As you know, American Forests' National Register of Big Trees came out this spring. We appreciate the input of the many big tree-hunters across the country. Yet even with all that fine scouting, there are still 87 species of trees without a champ.

Now, American Forests is working to place Public Service Announcements in the media, particularly in magazines and newspapers. The overarching goal of the Big Tree campaign is to get Americans interested in our natural ecosystems through an appreciation of big trees and all the good they represent. (Plus, we'd like to see that number 87 disappear!)

If you or anyone you know would like to help place PSAs in local newspapers, magazines, and publications please visit our PSA page online. Thanks again for your ongoing support.

Making It Official: Writing Trees Into Local Ordinances

All land-use decisions are made locally. While research and technical analysis of land cover demonstrates trees' ability to improve air, water, and energy, local officials need to adopt public policies that pertain to tree canopy coverage. American Forests urges every community to assess its tree cover, calculate the value as an ecosystem service, set tree canopy goals, and then implement steps to achieve them. Over the next couple of issues, we'll highlight success stories from cities that have incorporated the ecosystem value of trees into their local ordinances, best management practices, and replacement value of destroyed trees.

Protecting The Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay Commission (CBC) is a tri-state legislative commission created in 1980 to advise the members of the General Assemblies of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania on matters of Bay-wide concern. Recently, the Commission issued Directive 03-01: Expanded Riparian Forest Goals, reaffirming its commitment to restore water quality to the Chesapeake Bay. The major source of water pollution in the Bay today is from nonpoint sources such as auto oils on roads, urban fertilizers, and pesticides, which are channeled from urban communities and flow into stormwater systems that feed into tributaries and eventually to the Bay.

The commission formally recognized that urban tree canopy cover offers stormwater control and water quality benefits to municipalities upstream within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Boosting urban and suburban tree canopy provides additional ecosystem services to riparian buffers in cleaning up the Bay.

The Directive set a short-term goal of restoring riparian forest buffers along at least 10,000 miles by 2010. Within that time, each state will work with at least five local communities to assess tree cover, set tree canopy goals, and develop an implementation plan to achieve those goals.

Starting Where the Rain Falls

In Lacey, Washington, the city adopted a Zero Impact Development Ordinance to protect the receiving waters and aquatic life after construction so that all stormwater must remain on site and infiltrate into the soil. Not only does this relieve stormwater management systems and reduce flooding potential, it directs water to tree roots and provides water recharge. Tree planting areas serve double duty, providing beauty and acting as stormwater filters and detention areas.

Communities like Collier County, Florida, have already written these design provisions into landscape and tree planting ordinances. These "micro-detention" planting areas allow a developer to meet federal Phase II stormwater rules as well.

Post-Fire Restoration

Just over two years ago, Oregon experienced one of its largest fires in memory. A July 13, 2002, lightning storm sparked four fires in the Klamath Mountains of southwestern Oregon. These blazes combined into the Biscuit Fire, an inferno that burned across 500,000 acres, mostly on the Siskiyou National Forest, threatened 17,000 people living in the Illinois Valley, and cost approximately $153 million to bring under control.

As the Forest Service has carried out its post-fire planning process for the Biscuit Fire, controversy has set in. The controversy speaks to the complex issue of what post-fire restoration is, how it is carried out, and how it gets paid for. Difficult questions remain regarding how post-fire planning should consider ecological, economic, and social issues. Such questions might include to what extent salvage logging is an appropriate part of post-fire restoration or how and when reforestation should take place.

Between 2001 and 2003, nearly 6 million acres burned on Forest Service/ BLM lands. The House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health recently convened a hearing to address questions on post-fire restoration. The community perspective was represented at the hearing by Cate Hartzell, program coordinator of the Collaborative Learning Circle and a City Councilor for Ashland, Oregon. She testified that by establishing common ground and building trust, a sound basis for post-fire restoration could be achieved.

American Forests is developing written testimony to submit to the House Forests and Forest Health Subcommittee that will urge Congress to pay greater heed to the importance of reforestation. The focus should be on ensuring the rapid recovery of the forest ecosystem with special attention paid to the ecosystem services (clean air and water, wildlife habitat, climate regulation, and so on) provided by any given site.

To plant trees in ecosystems damaged by wildfire: www.wildfirereleaf.org

The Roadless Issue

Amid the escalating wildfire season and the controversy over timber harvests in Alaska and Oregon, the Bush administration decided to retire the 2001 roadless rule. That rule, passed by former President Clinton, shielded from development 58.5 million acres of "roadless" land in national forests. The rule protected forests with rivers and waterways, which provide fresh drinking water for nearby communities. It also protected countless species of wildlife, including deer and elk, which attract visitors to the parks. Environmentalists lauded the rule as a hallmark of Clinton's presidency, but industry leaders and several western representatives scoffed at it.

In some areas of the rural West, local communities perceived the roadless rule as limiting their options for forest management while the timber industry perceived it as locking up potential timberland. American Forests supported the proposal but was concerned for communities threatened by wildfire that wished to carry out beneficial fuel reduction projects. Opposition by industries and some Western states resulted in lawsuits that prompted the recent overturning.

A new proposal, unveiled by Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, already promises similar discontent. This time, conservationists are shuddering at the changes and some Western states and industry representatives seem to be applauding. The proposal will lift protections on roadless areas and give state governors the power to petition the Forest Service for roadless designations within their own states. Their petitions would then be decided upon by the Secretary of Agriculture. If a governor chooses not to petition, the lands will "revert" to earlier protection levels, with the potential to open 24 million acres of land.

The New York Times reports that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) dismissed the new rule in a conference call as "bad policy, bad environmental policy, bad Western policy," saying, "there are areas that the federal government should manage consistently from state to state." But House Resource Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-CA) said in a statement: "Forest management decisions should be made at the state level by people who know individual forest conditions best, not by bureaucrats surrounded by concrete in Washington."

American Forests continues to advocate that communities, especially in the West, shift "from a timber-based economy to a restoration-based economy," so that ecosystem services such as clean air, clean water, stable soils, and fire-resistant stands retain their value. A functioning ecosystem provides an expanded range of jobs in the natural resource field. Moving to a restoration-based economy does not mean that forests should be totally sealed off from some sustainable use. But it does mean that priorities should center on revitalizing forested areas and preventing destructive wildfires.

To read more about American Forests' specific reaction to the overturning of the roadless rule click here.

Out of Africa

The Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education (TACARE) project in Western Tanzania brings together scientists and local villagers with the common goal of stopping deforestation and providing community development. TACARE began in 1994 as a project of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), after Dr. Goodall noticed the barren land surrounding Gombe National Park within the Kigoma region of Tanzania.

So far, the project has planted more than 2.4 million trees in 32 villages, as well as 81 hectares (200 acres) of "demonstration plots" and "communal woodlots." Trees planted in villages receive protection under "village by-laws" and can only be harvested with special permission. Since 1994, villagers have created 65 Village Reserves, branching out to create "a 5-hectare hardwood plantation" (12 acres) bordering on the Kitwe Forest.

TACARE also promotes the use of fuel-efficient stoves to help ease the burden of finding wood fuel and to lessen reliance on the forest. Fuel-efficient stoves reduce firewood consumption by 60 percent and, as a consequence, reduce the time spent on firewood collection. To date, more than 400 women have been trained in the use and construction of fuel-saving stoves.

In 2002 George Strunden, VP/director of Africa Programs at JGI, passed the reins of TACARE to Tanzanian natives Emmanuel Mutiti and Mary Mavanza. With continuing training both for adults and children, Tanzanian villagers prove that sustainability is a viable and profitable alternative to clearcutting.

For more information visit janegoodall.org.

Win For Big Blue

Residents of the village of Wellington in Palm Beach County, Florida, won an important victory for the Big Blue Natural Preserve. The preserve, which at one time was a swamp, encompasses 93 acres of old cypress trees on the grounds of the Palm Beach Polo Golf & Country Club. In 1972, county officials allowed Wellington's first developers, including those who built the country club, to build around the preserve with the express agreement that they protect the cypress forest and add to an already diminishing water supply. Upset by the preserve's weakening condition, residents later sued club owner Glenn Straub.

After a three-year trial, Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Catherine Brunson ordered Straub and Palm Beach Polo to keep Big Blue intact, monitor and kill invasive plants, and add more water.

"That's great news," Mark Miles, an ex-Councilman, told South Florida's Sun-Sentinel. "This is a very, very important part of Wellington." Interestingly, a number of ancient Indian "artifacts" have been discovered inside small hills within the preserve, archeological treasures that complement the natural treasures of the trees themselves.

Libertad

In late June, a Mexican judge dismissed charges against "two Indian antilogging activists" arrested more than a year ago, reports AP. The men, Isidro Baldenegro and Hermenegildo Rivas, defended the northern Sierra Tarahumara forest from loggers with ties to the drug trade. The forest protectors were supposedly arrested without warrants and framed with drugs and "illegal arms," AP says.

While they were in jail, details of police mismanagement came to light. Mexican Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha told AP that "the charges were being dropped on human rights grounds." Illegal logging in Mexico threatens some of the world's biggest and "most biologically diverse jungle after the Amazon," says Ginger Thompson, writing in the New York Times. Local villagers sometimes band together against the loggers, but it is no easy task to protect the great swaths of forest.

The next issue of American Forests magazine will have an article on tree-restoration in Michoacan, an area in central Mexico where Monarch butterflies are threatened by the continued destruction of tree cover. Through a partnership with Michoacan Resforestation Fund and La Cruz Habitat Preservation Project in Mexico, American Forests will help local landowners replant trees in the badly damaged hillsides and valleys. Become an American Forests member today and you will not only receive this issue of the magazine (part of a year's subscription), you will also know your dollars are helping a species of wildlife and the Mexican people who share the land.

Join Now!

From The World Of Big Trees:

Newsworthy Tree

In Evansville, Indiana, the nation's largest royal paulownia tree may be on its last legs. Although the tree has been around for decades, it has not gone untouched by its environment. Last year, a person tried to burn the tree down. Mother Nature has shown equal disregard. On July 5, a severe storm stripped the tree of most of its branches. Even before the storm hit, town residents knew the tree was ailing. Some branches had to be bolstered by "wire and concrete" supports, according to the Courier Press of Evansville.

The royal paulownia is not native to the United States (it comes from Asia), but this particular tree has earned a place in many Evansville people's hearts through its beauty and longevity. The tree stands right in front of Reitz Memorial High school, where it has marked seasons, proms and homecomings with flowers and leaves. It has been the national champion royal paulownia since 1993.

Old Trees Cut At Oldfields

Residents of Glencoe, Maryland, grew concerned when the Oldfields School decided to cut down 164 "old trees" without telling anybody, according to the North County News. Many trees were taken down from the roadside, angering locals like Laney Iglehart, who told North County News, "Where tall trees used to arch over the road, there's now a ball of glaring light." George McCeney, another neighbor, said he "consider[s] [the cutting] an indignity to the neighborhood on a number of levels."

Anne Finney, who works for Oldfields' development office, said all the proceeds from the downed trees will go towards replanting the sites. She admits that Oldfields made a mistake by not notifying area residents of its plans. But, she said, the trees had to go because they posed safety concerns. Last year's tropical storm Isabel caused one "huge limb" to come crashing down close to students in Carroll House. Although apparently no one was injured, Oldfields officials realized they needed better tree maintenance. Officials foresee planting more trees in "mid-August at the earliest." At the moment, Glencoe residents are left without the shade and services those big trees provided.

Are You a Member?

You can do your part to help the environment today by joining AMERICAN FORESTS. Not only are 25 trees planted for you in a damaged ecosystem or forest restoration project, but you will also receive:

• A free subscription to our quarterly magazine
• A free Big Trees calendar
• A window decal

Join Today! Visit http://www.americanforests.org/

Don't forget to forward this information to friends or colleagues.

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