KATHY AND TIM EVANS’ connection to American Forests began with a hope to contribute to impactful change. “We wondered, ‘how can ordinary people have an impact on climate change?’,” Kathy says. “One answer is through trees. Trees affect climate globally, beyond just the local area where they grow.”

When looking into organizations that shared their passion for natural climate solutions, they were impressed with American Forests’ collaborative approach, innovative science and large-scale reforestation impacts in one of the landscapes they most cherished. American Forests’ Northern Rockies program was the perfect fit for their Donor-Advised Fund, which they had established with inheritance money from Kathy’s parents, Robert and Juletta Corbin.

“My parents were born and lived their entire lives in northwestern Wyoming,” she says. “They shared their passion for camping, hiking and fishing in Yellowstone Park and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with my brother and me. I think they would be pleased that the legacy they left is working to help restore and preserve the alpine forests they so dearly loved.”

To have their desired impact, Kathy and Tim decided to support American Forests with monthly donations, providing financial predictability and year-round benefits for reforestation work, as well as helping them increase their impact over time.

“Giving monthly allows us to donate more money over a longer period, which is a win for the whitebark pine population and the entire ecosystem in the northern Rocky Mountains,” says Kathy.

This investment in American Forests connects each of the dots of the Evans’ passions — from reducing global greenhouse gas levels to restoring long-lasting species like the whitebark pine. Kathy illustrated her vision of their impact by saying, “I like to picture polluted air from other parts of the globe flowing through our lovely northern Rocky Mountain forests, being stripped of some of its CO₂ through photosynthesis and leaving a little cleaner than it arrived.”