You know and understand the importance of trees. What exactly do you want to accomplish by planting them in a particular place - energy conservation, slow down stormwater, beautify your community, produce local enconomic benefits? What is your specific goal? These 8 steps will help you in the right direction.

Step 1. Setting Goals, Finding Sites

To assure success, start with a project of modest proportions. The urban forests is everywhere in the city, no less on private property than on city-owned areas. Consider gathering together several of your neighbors for a large-scale tree-planting weekend. If you choose this route, you can share the physical labor and costs, as well as the equipment and materials - your neighbor's pickup truck, the rented rototiller, even the mulch. If you've ever been involved in organizing a joint garage sale, church bazaar, or block party, you can organize a group to plant and care for a group of trees (and have a party, too!).

If your vision for trees is wider than your immediate neighborhood, then your range is virtually unlimited. Since resources are often limited, selecting the best places for planting is critical. In more established area, street trees are always in need of care and, very often, replacement. You may choose to plant energy-conserving trees in local schoolyards or to shade parking lots: or you may decide to put in a whole mini-forest along a treeless right-of -way.

If you are more of a fix-it person, you may want to attend to city trees that need a solid regimen of maintenance. With a little training from an expert and occasional advice from your city forester, you can learn how to help prune and maintain young trees. Some cities are faced with specific problem or disease - the gypsy moth, oak, wilt, or Dutch elm disease - that needs to be addressed and treated. This is the province of local government, but the watchful eyes and concerned voices of citizens are needed as well. Calling attention to trees in trouble can serve to mobilize the community to focus public awareness on other urban forest issues, big and small.

You may choose to establish a wide-ranging plan for your entire community; possibly with a goal toward setting up a separate forestry department of one does not exist. Many projects are begging to be tackled in the urban forest - take your pick. You are limited only by your imagination and energy.

Step 2. Lighting The Flame

Enthusiasm is contagious. If the project is local, you need to identify those who most need to be involved in it. In a street of single-family homes, you could approach your neighbors to find a core group of volunteers. You will probably find that explaining the practical value of trees- both in terms of real estate dollars and the energy saving that trees provide, plus the benefits of beautification of your neighborhood-will be persuasive. Then you can go on to explain some of the global implications involved, even for a small neighborhood project.

Make a special effect to include children from the outset; "kid energy" is a powerful ingredient in the alchemy of community action. Recruiting youngsters is also a fine way to involve their parents and teachers, too. Find the opportunity to address local scout groups; offer your expertise to a teacher or principal of your neighborhood school and volunteer to talk to the students about tree planning in your community; approach your children's soccer, baseball, or hockey team.

If you already belong to a community group, social or business club, charitable organization, or parent-teacher association, you have a built-in audience. Otherwise, try networking at parties and at work. Although not everyone will be receptive to the idea, you will be educating each person you meet about the benefits of tree planting in the best way possible: one-on-one with face-to-face contact. Raising awareness is always the first step to community action.

Step 3. Getting The Word Out

You can use a variety of publicity outlets to make sure that as many people as possible know about your project. Flyers help, especially when you or one of your volunteers knocks on the door to hand it to someone. Community bulletin boards are important too, but in keeping with the personal approach, try to reach as many people as possible with live presentation: school group, neighborhood associations, and scout groups are all effective places to educate people and recruit volunteers for the opening day of your tree-planting project. American Forests produces quotable information from its Urban Forests Center. You can use this information to interesta reporter in a story about trees or to give a presentation at a community meeting.

Be sure to inform the local media: newspapers and radio and television stations (see Earth Day Network "How To Work with the Media"). One of the major goals of American Forests is to educate the public about the benefits of the urban forest, and your group's tree planting or tree-caring program or activity is proof that the community is really concerned about the stat of your city's trees-and they are doing something about it.

The more people who realize the link between the health of the urban forest, tree planting, and the development of a sense of community pride, the easier it will be for the next project-and for the well-being of the urban forest. Attracting media will certainly be easier if you can make a real event out of your tree planting. Combine it with some entertainment, games for children, or a picnic. The tree planting should be recognized for the fun-and environment significant activity-that it is.

Step 4. Choosing Your Core Group

Every operation needs an action team - a core of concerned individuals who will be involved every step of the way. At best, every member of the team should have a different "specialty" and be prepared to see the project through to completion.

The ideal team consists of seven to ten people and includes a lawyer; a technical expert (such as a professional tree person), a volunteer coordinator, a reporter or writer, an engineer, a well-connected businessperson, and someone from the town, city, or county council. With a team like that and access to major funders, you are ready to play in the big leagues, changing and rewriting regulations. With assured exposure through major media outlets, you will be able to set up a tree planting program that will be long-lived and supported by an official network.

For your first project, more than likely you will be happy to settle for a handful of committed individuals whom you can trust to show up when they are needed. Keep a list of everyone who expressed an interest, during your initial canvassing, whether for planting or organizing at any level.

Step 5. Learning The Ropes And Getting The Permits

Chances are you may know very little about how your town or city works. Even if all you want to do is plant a few trees on your street, school campus, etc, you will need to know who is responsible and who can give you the green light. Who's in charge? Is it the board of public works, or does your city or town have a separate forestry department? Are park trees under a different jurisdiction than street trees? Ask your city forester to talk to your group about the area's trees and the community's existing tree program. Start communicating with the people who can help you.

What are the steps needed to get permission for your project? Do you know an elected official who is prepared to help? Check out your community web page for a public officials roster with the list you are looking for. The more homework you do, the more responsive you will find city officials to be, easing the whole process. And the expertise you gain at this stage will prepare you for the challenges ahead.

You may need a permit, a step that will ensure that you will be planting the proper tree for the site you have chosen. Develop a good working relationship with a particular individual at the agency involved. It is this person's job to work with you, not against you, so learn to cooperate with him or her, and make sure to let the person know you appreciate the help. Keep everyone at the agency or agencies abreast of all development in your project. Surprises are generally unwelcome arrivals at local bureaucracies. And if you run up against official opposition, learn what changes you will have to make before they say "yes."

Step 6 Rounding Up Support

Projects on public property can cost a lot of money. Remember, planting the tree is only the beginning of the process. The American Forestry Association estimates that planting and caring for a street tree for the first five years of its life costs about $300, including $60 for the cost of the tree. About a third of the total cost is for general maintenance after the first year. Ideally, about $100 of that is placed in a trust fund for the tree at the time of the planting. The places to look for the green stuff are limited only by your imagination (www.earthday.net/howto/money.stm)

Start your campaign for funds close to home. The most immediate sources are local businesses, homeowners associations, local Kiwanis and Rotary clubs and the chamber of commerce. You might even organize a neighborhood yard sale; bake sale, or car wash to drum up more support, as well as funds, in your community.

If the trees are on a main thoroughfare, you may be able to get individual merchants to contribute the money for trees in front of their property. Make sure you explain how the trees will upgrade the neighborhood and increase foot traffic. Other local establishments may donate money if the planting is done as a block-improvement project. Some local businesses may gladly make service or product contributions when the project is designed to attract public attention. A printer or copy shop may do flyers and letter for free; a restaurant or dairy may provide snakes for the planting event; a hardware store might supply you with tools; a nursery could provide equipment, soil amendment, or even some of the trees at a discount. Just be sure their participation is recognized publicly, and don't be surprised if you find a handful of enthusiastic merchants joining in and planting trees along with you. Remember that the resident of any neighborhood also represent the companies and organization they work for, and they may be willing to sponsor the projects in their "front yard."

Step 7 Making It Happen

With luck and perseverance, your local government will give the go-ahead for a full-fledged community tree program. If they don't, continue to develop a constituency for one and approach them next year. Alternatively, you may find private or corporate funding to defray the full costs of your proposed program. Once the funds have been established for a tree program, the local government will hire an urban forester and the first part of your task is completed. Congratulations! All that remains is your continued involvement in developing strong ties between your core group, the community, the forester, and the local government-plus planting and caring for the trees, of course.

Step 8 Becoming Tree Stewards

The least glamorous but most necessary part of community tree planting comes after the ground has been prepared and the tree lovingly planted. Remember: If you are planting a tree on a busy city street in a central part of the city, you are choosing a concrete jungle for its new home. The young tree will need constant care in its early years, and regular maintenance after that. Even if relatively hospitable areas of the city, young trees still need a regular schedule if watering care and inspection. Depending on the species and the weather conditions, the young trees may need special care for the first three to five years. And after the first year or so, they need to be inspected by a person trained to identify damage by pests and disease. By the third year, your young tree will need corrective pruning to remove dead and damaged branches as well as those growing in a direction that will cause problems later in life. These branches should be snipped by a trained pruner with a steady hand. Assuming that the city has not taken over the task, citizen volunteers can be trained to assist with the job. And then, for the rest of the tree's life, someone needs to make sure that the tree you worked so hard to plant archives its full promise and maximum benefit as part of the urban forest. American Forests, after all, puts its emphasis on the volume of leaves that branch out into the cities, not the number of bare stems in the world.

Planting and caring for trees is the only part of the process. Planting ideas and hope in the minds of children is just as important. Teachers across the country have found that children love to discover the wonders and mysteries of the urban forest close at hand. Some school may take part in an actual planting; others may go on a field trip, surveying streets for the kinds of trees and animals in the urban forest; still others can exposed to the most important concept through entertaining presentations and slide shows.

The "Tree For Every Child Learning Guide" contains lesson plans to teach fourth sixth graders about the environmental value of trees and forests and includes information on conducting a tree survey and planting trees. Projects may vary from area to area, but here are a few ideas for hands-on activities that children everywhere will enjoy:

• Getting to know the trees of the neighborhood. Local field trips will help children learn the most basic elements of the urban forest: the difference between conifers and deciduous trees, for instance. Younger children can count the number of trees on their way to school and develop a tree map of the area. Older children can learn the names of the verities that grow in their area and something about their natural history.
• The journals. Each child can keep a journal on a particular tree. They can draw it during different seasons of the year, collect samples of bark, leaves, and seeds, and observe the kinds of wildlife-from ants to squirrels and birds-that they see and study.
• Germinating a tree a seed. Perhaps one of the seeds collected from a local species gathered on a class outing could be germinated at home or in the classroom. Transplanting a seedling that has sprouted and is growing out of place in a garden or flowerbed could be another project.
• Making mulch. Here is a great opportunity to delve into the life cycles of trees: How dead material is recycled back into the earth; how carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water are recycled through the composted leaves. Lots of lessons here!
• The anatomy of a tree. Older children can be introduced to the detailed structure and function of the parts of a tree and hoe\w a tree's processes are influenced by living in the city as opposed to the forest. Roots, leaves, xylem, phloem, and bark can all be examined under a microscope.
• A walk on the wild side. Visit a rural forest, preferably for longer than a day to discover the joys of nature. This is a perfect time for children to discover a natural ecosystem and the cycles within it. Back in the city, students can compare the rural and the urban forest. They may be surprised to find that, despite their differences, the two function in similar ways.
• Recycling. Start a recycling program in the classroom and encourage children to institute one at home, too. This may also be a way for children to earn a little extra money-maybe for tree planting! In high school with large student populations, thorough recycling can result in hundreds a month for student projects or tree care.