Our Heritage: Leading on Every Positive Change in America's Forests

Originally launched in 1875 as the American Forestry Association, American Forests has always advocated for a careful and science-based strategy to manage and conserve forests for generations to come.

During the last nearly 150 years, American Forests:

  • Originated the ideas for a national forest system and the U.S. Forest Service 
  • Created the first conservation periodical in the nation
  • Successfully advocated for the expansion of national forests in the eastern United States
  • Worked with Franklin Roosevelt to create the Civilian Conservation Corps
  • Provided a platform for legendary conservation heroes like Gifford Pinchot, Aldo Leopold and Ansel Adams
  • Pioneered tree planting, a social responsibility program, on a national scale
  • Advanced the field of urban forestry through GIS mapping of urban tree canopy and creating the Vibrant Cities Lab.

We have also funded more than 1,000 forest restoration projects in every state, planted 65 million trees and helped expand tree canopy in dozens of major cities. 

Today, we continue to be a leader for forest conservation and believe trees are a solution to two major crises: climate change and social inequity.