What trees do for people
A single, mature tree provides enough oxygen for four people to breathe for a day. On the most essential, life-giving and life-sustaining level, trees and forests — and the benefits they provide — are for people. They are for you.
Along our city streets and across sprawling landscapes, trees give people clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. On an even greater level, trees play a vital role in addressing some of the most pressing issues facing our society today, including climate change and declining urban canopy. Trees provide the basic benefits needed to support thriving ecosystems. But, they are also essential in supporting healthy, resilient communities for people.
This is why American Forests’ mission is not just about trees. Simply put, trees and their many benefits are intrinsically for people. This is why American Forests is not just a tree-planting organization, we’re a people organization.
What American Forests does for people
For 150 years, American Forests has stood boldly at the forefront of the conservation movement, working collaboratively and innovatively to ensure that all people have access to the benefits of trees.
We championed the creation of the U.S. Forest Service, persuaded Congress to provide stable funding for fighting and preventing forest fires, and more recently successfully advocated for the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included a $1.5 billion investment in urban forestry in the nation’s most vulnerable communities.
This legacy of leadership is not just about protecting forests, it’s about protecting the communities impacted by them. We don’t just plant trees. We ensure that the right trees are planted in the right places and cared for in the right ways, so they can thrive and provide benefits to the people that need them most.
We do this through our unique, holistic approach, focusing on science and innovation, place-based partnerships, and movement building.
Photo Credit: Tom Koenig / American Forests
This means we always lead by developing and implementing science-backed solutions. We collaborate with local experts to ensure that restoration and resiliency is tailored to each landscape, forest, city and neighborhood. We engage federal policymakers and lead advocacy efforts to ensure continued support for our neighborhoods and landscapes through bold investments in reforestation and resilience.
This mission is not just our mission… it’s for all of us. For you. The need for unity has never been greater. Federal, state and local partnerships, nonprofits, foundations, businesses, and individuals all must come together to take collective action to meet the challenges we face together.
We are driven by the power of forests and their ability to provide clean, abundant water for people and habitat for wildlife, as well as their vital role in slowing climate change and advancing social equity. We remain grounded in these four pillars:
Photo Credit: Mark Janzen / American Forests
Trees capture and filter 17.4 million tons of pollutants from the air in just one year in the United States. But climate change continues to threaten our forests and communities. American Forests has planted 150,000 acres of forest in the last 35 years alone. By the time these trees are 50 years old, the forests they’re in will have stored more than 26 million metrics tons of CO2 equivalent, helping to give us cleaner air and healthier environments.
We also continue to develop and implement climate-smart, landscape-scale reforestation strategies for specific regions of the country to ensure we are restoring and maintaining the most resilient future forests. We cannot slow the pace of climate change — and all of its associated threats to us — without reforesting America’s landscapes and cities at a faster pace.
For forests. For climate. For people.
Trees are life-saving infrastructure — filtering our air, cooling our cities, lowering utility bills, providing physical and mental health benefits, and generating jobs. But, not everyone in U.S. cities has equal access to these benefits, fueling a climate justice and social equity crisis across our country. In U.S. cities, lower-income communities tend to have 26% less tree cover and are almost 6 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than wealthier ones. Communities of color — regardless of income — tend to have 38% less tree cover and are almost 13 degrees hotter than white communities.
Photo Credit: Nick Hagen / American Forests
Since 1990, American Forests has planted 65 million trees, many of those in cities. And once mature, those trees will help curb the carbon emissions from the annual energy use of 3.1 million homes, creating healthier, more livable communities. But what’s more, American Forests is leading a Tree Equity movement, shaping the tools, resources and collective action needed to help ensure that trees are planted in the neighborhoods that need them most so that all individuals, regardless of race or income, have equal access to the benefits of trees.
For forests. For communities. For people.
Did you know 55% of America’s drinking water originates from forests — mainly the rivers and streams that run through them? When our forests are healthy, so is the water they filter. American Forests has planted more than 65 million trees just since 1990. These trees will capture, store and filter 11 billion gallons of water a year. That’s enough to fill 16,500 Olympic swimming pools. Enough to provide people — maybe even your community, plus communities around the country — with billions of gallons of filtered drinking water.
An astounding 80% of land-dwelling wildlife species rely on forests for survival. These species need healthy ecosystems to provide habitat and supply their food. Since 1997, American Forests has restored 2,350 acres of forests down in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, critical habitat for 11 endangered species, including the ocelot. Up in the high-elevation mountains of the West, we’ve restored 3,250 acres of whitebark pine, whose calorie-rich seeds provide food for over 110 wildlife species, including the threatened grizzly bear. The health of wildlife and the health of forests are intrinsically linked. When wildlife thrive, they help support the biodiversity of the overall forest ecosystem, which allows forests to thrive and provide the most benefits for people.
From snow-packed forests that provide drinking water to surrounding communities, to the urban canopy that cools a neighborhood, our trees are essential to our well-being, our health and our future. For 150 years, American Forests and our partners have stood for ensuring that all people have access to the benefits of trees. It will take continued collective action to ensure healthy, thriving forests and communities everywhere. The next 150 years begins now.
