Houston-area teachers, including Glenn Miller, take part in H-E-B-sponsored environmental education training.

Texas teachers of grades 6 through 8 are taking part in a special environmental education program this fall as part of the grocery store H-E-B's celebration of its 100th anniversary. Forty schools have been selected to receive software and training to teach students about the environmental importance of trees. Each school also received five saplings connected to historic people or places to plant on its grounds.

American Forests provided the training and its GIS software, CITYgreen, which has become an effective way to teach math, science and geogiraphy with real-world applications. Across the country, students are combining the computer technology with hands-on activities to learn to value trees in their local area.

American Forests' environmental education program, which began in Rhode Island in 2001 and is taking root in schools across the country, features lesson plans derived by middle and high school teachers. Teachers say that's important because they know the classroom work has been field tested by their peers.

So far, teachers in 24 states and the District of Columbia have trained on the program. In Washington, DC, for example, five schools participated in a program offered by American Forests and the nonprofit Casey Trees. For that program students learned to ID and inventory trees in schoolyards and surrounding neighborhoods. Casey Trees' citizen foresters helped with the program in the field.

Mike Lehman, who coordinates the environmental education program for American Forests, says he's pleased by the responses he's gotten from teachers. Evaluations have been routinely positive.

One evaluation said the program had garnered 'the greatest student involvement of any project in my 32 years of teaching,' Lehman says.

The school program was a natural fit for H-E-B, which says it was looking for an initiative that exemplified its "deep Texas roots and our future growth," H-E-B's Kate Rogers says.

"H-E-B is committed to actively pursuing environmental initiatives that ensure the natural beauty of the communities we serve, and that educate students about the world around them," says Susan Ghertner, H-E-B's manager of environmental affairs.

"We are proud to offer this opportunity to Texas educators and to partner with an organization that is committed to preserving our forests for generations to come."

American Forests also will plant 100 trees in a Global ReLeaf Forest project in honor of each of the 40 schools participating in the program.

For more about CITYgreen or to inquire about starting a program in your school, visit our website at www.americanforests.org or contact Mike Lehman at 202/737-1944 Ext. 212.

Nature's Creations

People buying holiday ornaments made from the preserved leaves of the fallen Wye Oak will benefit American Forests. That's because each natural design sold during the holiday season will plant a tree in an American Forests' Global ReLeaf Forest.

"Nature's Creations is pleased to make available Wye Oak leaf ornaments created using the natural leaves from the fallen 'Gentle Giant' " said Dennis Ray, managing designer.

The leaves, embellished with a burgundy silk bow, join variously sized pins crafted by Nature's Creations from the Wye Oak, which was the nation's largest white oak until it toppled in a June 2002 storm. The purchase of these Historic Leaf pins as well as other Natural Leaves and Commemorative Pins also will result in the planting of a Global ReLeaf tree.

Founded in 1976, Nature's Creations designs, handcrafts, and distributes unique jewelry and art from leaves and other natural items. Through a process called artistic electroforming the company captures the leaves in copper, then finishes the design with copper patinas or precious metals. Various sized Wye Oak leaf designs are available at www.wye-oak.com. Other examples of Nature's Creations' natural leaf designs are available on its website.

Tree Doctor

Befuddled by pruning, lobed leaves, or disease? Send your questions to our experts: Tree Doctor

Q: I just had an old ash deadwooded. Could you tell me its age? I measured 5 1/2 ft.width, 13 ft 4 in. circumference, 60 ft. canopy, and 68 1/2 ft height. -Via e-mail
A: The only way to tell the age of a tree is to count the annual rings. If you have a stump to study, you could do this; otherwise it's a wild guessing game. To hazard a guess, figure how fast this tree grew in its lifetime. In a good growing site, with good soil and plenty of sun and moisture, it might have grown as much as 2 inches or so every 10 years. Using your circumference measurement, the diameter of this tree would be about 51 inches and you could project the age at 250 to 260 years. Remember that this is truly a wild guess. Call it "very old" and let it go at that-unless you can count the rings on the stump.

Q: The roots of a huge tree have come into my father's yard and sprouted. That one tree was fine, but now a whole bunch have sprouted. We hack them down, but they keep growing back. Now the trees are literally taking over the back yard. The trees are so out of control, he wants to sell the house but can't until this is taken care of and he can repair the back yard. Please help! -Marisa Baker
A: First, consult a local horticulturist to identify the tree and get a professional opinion on eradication. Find a good horticulturist by contacting arboretums, better nursery and garden centers, or colleges where botany or horticulture is taught. Park boards or commissions might be another good contact. Check: http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/1699/. It describes the Ailanthus tree, which fits your description and can be a real pest. A number of people there attest to the difficulty of ridding an area of this tree; their best advice seems to be either to dig it up or treat each freshly cut stem with strong herbicide.

Q: I'm looking for detailed "planting for dummies" help for cones-to-seeds metasequoia (dawn redwood). - Christopher Hopper (Via e-mail)
A: Metasequoia cones ripen in December. Pick cones when the scales naturally begin to open and they'll continue to open in a week or two at room temperature. Opened cones need to be tumbled as some seeds adhere to the cone scales. Seeds can be sown directly on soil and mulched with fine sand. Fumigate or heat-sterilize the soil to prevent the growth of damping-off fungi during early seedling growth. Young seedlings should be grown in high humidity, such as a greenhouse with overhead sprinklers, and, in hot climates, seedlings shaded during their first growing season. Apparently metasequoia can also be readily reproduced by rooted cuttings.

Q: What is the meaning of forestation and deforestation? What are the differences between them? - Manisha (via e-mail)
A: A forest is any area covered by trees. Forestation means establishing tree cover on the land, either by planting or seeding trees on land where there are no trees now or on lands where the trees have been cut for wood products. Either way, "forestation" means the establishment of new tree growth on an area of land. Deforestation means the opposite: the removal of trees and conversion of the land to other uses, like agriculture or for cities, airports, or roads. The result of deforestation is that there will be fewer acres of forest land in the future.

Q: Can you determine if a tree can be saved or refer me to someone who can? One of our oaks was damaged by Hurricane Frances and is split at the trunk. I need to find out if it can be saved or if I must cut it down. If I must cut it, can the trunk below the damage be left to grow or is it better to remove the trunk & stump and start over? It is about 6 years old and was about 8 feet tall when it was planted. Greg Padowitz (Via e-mail)
A: Sorry, but we can neither diagnose nor prescribe treatment at this distance. However, the picture you sent shows a severe injury. It would be prudent at this point to consult an arborist or horticulturist familiar with tree damage in your area. In some areas this split might be bolted together to provide future strength, but I wonder if this might just open the door for future wood rot. I gather from the tree's size that tree growth is vigorous in your area and saving it would be a plus. If you decide to go with a new tree, a single stem specimen might be more practical. Generally, growing a new tree is preferable to encouraging resprouting from the former tree's stump, because the stump itself is subject to attack by insects and disease, which would then have access to the sprouts.

Help for California's Forests

Fans of Marie Claire magazine read an article on actress Sarah Michelle Gellar's efforts to help wildfire victims in California, then logged on by the thousands to purchase a zirconia butterfly necklace that aided American Forests' California Wildfire ReLeaf campaign. Each $29.95 necklace sold planted more than 15 trees, thanks to a tree-for-tree match by the U.S. Forest Service. As of October, necklace sales among magazine readers had netted more than $32,000 for tree planting in areas scorched by devastating fires in 2003.

California's 2003 wildfires killed 20 people, displaced more than 2,000 and devastated the area's forests. American Forests launched California Wildfire ReLeaf in response to phone calls and e-mails from across the country.

The limited edition necklace proved popular with more than Marie Claire's 54,000 readers. Publicity for the necklace and the worthy cause it benefits resulted in a total of nearly $225,000 in contributions.

Thousands of acres still need to be reforested. To learn more about Wildfire ReLeaf or to donate directly, visit www.americanforests.org. To purchase the necklace to benefit California Wildfire ReLeaf, visit netaya.com or call 800/636-6884 (cite style #NP2SJN51ZMC).

As part of its California Wildfire ReLeaf campaign, American Forests is currently accepting proposals for tree planting on fire-damaged public land in southern California. For more information, contact American Forests at 202/737-1944.

More Trees for Syracuse

SUNY students join in making Syracuse a little greener.

Syracuse, New York, is 100 trees richer thanks to a planting in late October by students from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and crew leaders from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County. The trees, donated by American Forests as part of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Urban Forestry Initiative, were planted as part of the annual Campus Day of Community Service.

Sponsors for Sen. Clinton's Urban Forestry Initiative include Niagara Mohawk, a National Grid company; International Paper, HSBC; retailer Eddie Bauer; and Starbucks.

Three dozen trees were planted near I-81 on Syracuse Housing Authority property along Almond Street and another 14 at an adjacent housing authority site to spruce up places that lack trees after recent building demolitions. At Kirk Park, students and volunteers planted 50 Tidal Basin cherry trees to enhance the site's potential for outdoor events. Those trees will become part of a plan to connect the area to a botanical garden and arboretum.

Clinton launched the Urban Forestry Initiative in May, announcing a donation of trees to five New York cities: Syracuse, Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester, and Poughkeepsie. Part of the drive behind the initiative was a report, issued simultaneously, that detailed the cost-benefits of expanded tree cover in urban areas. The report, which was based on a survey conducted by American Forests, found that the five New York cities fell below American Forests' recommended 40 percent tree cover totals for the East.

In addition to American Forests, project partners were Syracuse Department of Parks and Recreation, Syracuse Housing Authority, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and Trees New York.

Washington Outlook

Congress finally passed an Interior Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2005, providing funding for Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and other federal natural resource programs. The bill, however, was caught up in election year politics and, therefore, became wrapped up in an omnibus appropriations bill that was passed hastily in a special session of Congress after the presidential elections and after the fiscal year had begun.

The good news is that Congress did pass a bill this year, rather than waiting for the 109th Congress to begin. The not-so-good news is that many of the priority programs for which American Forests and many of our community-based partners have advocated in the bill did not fare very well.

The bill is a mixed bag, and some important programs did receive strong funding, especially given the severe budget constraints on natural resource and domestic spending programs. For example, Congress did come through with significant supplemental funds for wildfire suppression activities so that the Forest Service and BLM will not have to continue borrowing from other land management programs when all wildfire suppression funds for the year have been spent.

This "borrowing" from other programs for emergency wildfire suppression has been a major problem over the past few years and has had adverse effects on a wide range of programs important to communities and forest stewardship. The new bill provides an additional $500 million for wildfire suppression-$400 million for the Forest Service and $100 million for the BLM-to be used if all firefighting dollars have been spent.

The bill also provides significant funding increases for "hazardous fuels reduction" activities by the federal agencies, generally thinning small-diameter trees and clearing brush. The Forest Service received a $33 million increase from last year for a total of $266 million, and the BLM received a $20 million increase for a total of $204 million.

Though this total-$470 million-is substantial, it is far less than the amount needed to address the high-priority concern of reducing wildfire risks to communities and forest resource values. As we've discussed in the past, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act authorized $760 million for these activities through a bipartisan agreement (see Spring 2004). We have advocated for annual funding at that level, especially to develop fuels-reduction activities through the local collaborative processes the Act authorized.

A major disappointment is that the final Interior Appropriations bill eliminates funding for local collaboration and community assistance that was included in earlier House and Senate versions. The House, for example, had included specific funding for "community wildfire protection plans" in several Forest Service programs. These community-based plans are a critical mechanism for local collaboration in identifying and prioritizing hazardous fuels-reduction projects.

The House bill had included $5 million in Cooperative Fire Assistance, $3 million in the Forest Stewardship Program, and language stating that the $40 million for State Fire Assistance should be used "preferentially" for community wildfire protection plans. The House and Senate conferees on the final bill eliminated these funds in each instance, although they included language recognizing the importance of community wildfire protection plans.

Similarly, the Senate bill included specific funding for "multiparty monitoring" of hazardous fuels-reduction projects, another key mechanism for local collaboration. The conferees removed the $5 million allocation, part of the Inventory and Monitoring program. However, they acknowledged support for this activity and encouraged "various groups to participate in collaborative planning and engage in monitoring."

Support for "community assistance," or efforts to engage local communities and to build their capacity to participate in the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and the National Fire Plan, also suffered in the final Interior Appropriations bill. State and volunteer fire assistance and the Economic Action Programs were significantly reduced, and even the urban and community forestry program was slightly cut.

Furthermore, the problem of "earmarks" was exacerbated through the chaotic process of an omnibus appropriations bill. In addition to receiving $6 million less than last year, the Economic Action Programs were even more heavily earmarked. Of the more than $19 million designated for the programs, only $5 million was left for basic program activities; the rest was earmarked for specific projects.

As we look ahead to 2005 and the start of the 109th Congress, American Forests anticipates opportunities to participate in further policy discussions regarding these priorities on local collaboration and community assistance. It is likely that the new Congress will hold oversight hearings on how well activities authorized by the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and the National Fire Plan are being implemented.

After five years, the "Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act" is up for reauthorization. In addition to making federal payments to counties for schools and local infrastructure, this law created a mechanism for counties to fund forest stewardship projects on federal lands through a community-based process involving Resource Advisory Committees.

Another model of local collaboration Congress might discuss is the "Community Forest Restoration Act," which created the pilot Collaborative Forest Restoration Program in New Mexico. Although this law does not require reauthorization after five years, there is congressional interest in expanding it to other states.

Finally, opportunities to explore new mechanisms for local collaboration are likely to arise as discussions begin on the next Farm Bill. Congress is expected to lay the bill's groundwork, which deals primarily with private forest conservation, this summer. The bill is not expected to be passed until 2006 or 2007.-Gerry Gray

Nature: At Your Service

Charlotte, North Carolina, will host Nature at Your Service

Urban forests are important for more than just park benches and property values; in fact, they're vital for a community's health, enjoyment, and economic well-being. The 2005 National Conference on Urban Ecosystems will show participants how to reconnect people to their city's natural resources.

The conference, Nature at Your Service, will be organized by American Forests and held Nov. 17 and 18 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It will give practical advice for helping cities meet regulatory requirements for clean air and water, revitalizing neighborhoods, and reducing the cost of building and maintaining infrastructure.

The latest chapter in urban thinking for the 21st century recognizes the ecological city and the importance of respecting and using natural systems-forests, soils, water, and air-to support urban areas. Nature at Your Service is designed both for those who want to infuence the shape and direction of their community and for those who must meet environmental quality requirements.

Attendees can expect information on the latest technologies and emerging public policies, as well as take-home tools to help put the trees in their urban forests to best use. For more information about the conference, visit americanforests.org

A New Take on Recycling

Buy a bag, plant a tree. That's the message from Ecoist, which produces handmade designer bags and purses made from recycled materials including candy wrappers, soft drink labels, and food packages. The Miami-based company will plant a tree in a Global ReLeaf Forest for each recycled materials purse sold.

Each of the unique bags takes two to five days to produce and is considered to be one-of-a-kind. Company co-founder Gabriela Mekler found the bags in her native Mexico and developed a partnership with designer Marisa Rey.

Miami-based Ecoist, which emphasizes environmental awareness in all its work, specializes in handbags and home details made from recycled materials-materials that would ordinarily wind up in landfills and years to biodegrade.

"We plant a tree for every bag we sell," Mekler says. "We're really excited about providing unique products that have an environmental cause behind them."

The bags are being sold in Miami boutiques and art museum shops. Ecoist's website says it plans to "take our know-how to other countries and turn waste-bound materials into products."

Earth Share

Put your workplace-giving dollars to work for trees by donating to American Forests through Earth Share, a nationwide network of respected environmental and conservation organizations. It's a simple way to care for our health, water, air, land, and wildlife. Earth Share partners with employees and employers across the country to support hundreds of environmental groups through efficient and effective payroll deduction giving.

With payroll-deduction giving, you pledge that a small amount of each paycheck be automatically deducted; when that money goes to American Forests, you're helping to grow a healthier world with trees and forests. Your payroll deduction contribution can also count as your membership to American Forests.

As a member of Earth Share, American Forests participates annually in the largest workplace giving campaign in the nation, the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) for employees of the federal government and the U.S. military. Federal government or military employees can give to American Forests through the CFC by entering code # 901 on their pledge card during the next fund drive.

Several local United Ways include Earth Share in their list of charities, including Washington, DC; Rhode Island; and San Diego, California. And more and more workplaces are allowing employees to consider Earth Share for employee workplace giving. Among them: American Express, American Airlines, Aveda, Dell, Emory University, Harvard University, HBO, Hewlett Packard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sears, Tom's of Maine, and many others.

To learn more about Earth Share, including how your employer can host its own campaign, log onto our website: www.earthshare.org. To help your company set up its own workplace campaign with Earth Share, contact American Forests' Gregory Meyer, director of corporate relations, at: 202/955-4500 ext. 222 or e-mail gmeyer@amfor.org.

Oak Death Genome Cracked

Scientists have sequenced the genome of the fungal pathogen that causes Sudden Oak Death, but the discovery comes amid concerns that the deadly disease, which has killed thousands of trees in California, may have spread nationwide.

The disease, P. ramorum, was sent nationwide through plant shipments from an infected California nursery earlier this year. Officials say it will take at least a year to see if there are any effects. Of chief concern right now: the East Coast's Appalachian forest, according to NewScientist.com news service.

The disease has also been found in nurseries and some parks in the U.K. and the Netherlands. It kills oaks and beech by cutting off the flow of food from leaves to roots. When the roots die, the upper tree and limbs die from lack of water (see Sudden Death Looms for Oaks, American Forests, Summer 2001).

Scientists hope cracking the genetic code will lead to a diagnostic tool and, eventually, to a selective treatment. The current treatment, which requires a chemical be spread over the tree's bark twice a year, is not effective on all trees, the news service said.