What trees do for wildlife
Forests are home to an astonishing 80% of land-based wildlife species. That’s 80% of amphibians, 75% of birds and 68% of mammals that live in or depend on healthy forests — something that American Forests and our partners know a thing or two about.
Trees provide an array of benefits for people, but the benefits they provide for wildlife species are also immense. Trees serve as nesting sites, breeding grounds, protection from predators, food pantries, migratory corridors, shade for streams, climate stabilizers, carbon storers and soil enrichers.
The health of wildlife and the health of forests are intrinsically linked: When wildlife species thrive, they help support the biodiversity of the overall forest ecosystem, which allows forests to thrive and provide the most benefits for people.
Think about the hardworking Clark’s nutcracker. Flitting among whitebark pine trees high atop mountains in the West, this industrious bird buries pine seeds by the thousands in small caches on the forest floor during the summer, and miraculously remembers where to find them in the winter. In doing so, the plucky bird is the architect of a complex web of life, dispersing the seeds of the tree it relies upon for food — allowing those trees to grow and provide benefits like clean water to communities down stream — but in the process supplying the protein needs of red squirrels and grizzly bears who dig up and eat the seed caches to help them survive the cold winter months.
What American Forests does for wildlife
American Forests has spent decades supporting restoration work for whitebark pine, ensuring that the nutcracker’s role as primary seed disperser is assured. We’ve helped identify and grow seedlings that are genetically resistant to disease. We’ve implemented climate-smart restoration techniques to ensure newly planted seedlings are resilient to future conditions. And, we’ve raised awareness and strengthened collective restoration efforts through thought leadership and national campaigns.
It’s one of many examples of how — for 150 years — American Forests has worked to ensure that wildlife species across the country have healthy forests to sustain them.
But it’s not just the Clark’s nutcracker. We’ve restored habitat for an array of wildlife species all across the country.
- In Hawai’i, we’ve worked with partners to create a corridor of native koa trees above the mosquito line on the slopes of Mauna Kea — Hawai’i’s highest mountain — to help endangered songbirds escape deadly Avian malaria carried by mosquitoes moving higher up due to increasing temperatures.
- On Michigan’s upper peninsula, we’ve worked with partners to restore jack pine habitat to help the Kirtland’s warbler escape the brink of extinction—growing the population from 167 breeding pairs to 2,300, enough to remove them from the Endangered Species List.
- In Colorado, we’ve helped to restore fire-scarred landscapes that provide habitat for the Canada lynx across the Rockies.
- In Washington State, we’ve conducted riparian plantings to help regulate water temperatures for salmon.
- Across the southeast, we’ve planted nearly 7 million longleaf pine to protect species including the gopher tortoise.
And in one of the country’s most biologically rich habitats, Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, we’ve dug particularly deep to protect wildlife.
The thorny trees protecting an elusive cat
Along the southern border of the country lies the dry, desert scrubland of southwest Texas. This is thornforest country, a biodiversity haven for a vast array of species, including the ocelot.
Ocelots are wild, elusive cats with creamy gold-gray coats donning black spots and rosettes as unique to them as a human fingerprint. Ocelots can weigh as much as 34 pounds and rely on dense vegetation and access to water. Only 80–100 exist in the U.S. — all of them in the Rio Grande Valley.
But the ocelot’s home, the Tamaulipan thornforest ecosystem in the Rio Grande Valley, is in trouble.
Where it once sprawled across the Valley, it has been reduced to only 10% of its original range due to residential and commercial development, agricultural expansion and roads that divide the landscape.
Holding on to — and expanding on — the remaining thornforest is critical to not only the ocelots, but also the diverse bird, plant and butterfly species that also rely on this unique habitat. The Rio Grande Valley is America’s richest butterfly habitat. And with 519 species, the region is also a birders’ paradise that draws tens of thousands of human visitors every year. It’s also home to the Texas tortoise, Indigo snake, Aplomado falcon and hook-billed kite.
How we’re working
Addressing the decline of the Rio Grande Valley’s thornforests led American Forests and the Thornforest Conservation Partnership to develop the Thornforest Conservation Plan in 2020. The plan identifies core areas of existing thornforest, potential forest corridors to connect them — including to sites in Mexico — and ideal restoration sites across the region.
“To ocelots, the thornforest is a critical lifeline that allows them to navigate between wildlife corridors in search of food, shelter and companionship,” says Marisol Kuri, American Forests’ senior manager of Texas reforestation. “This connectivity is fundamental to sustaining their genetic diversity, stabilizing population numbers and supporting the long-term survival of this majestic species.”
Reforestation can only go as far and as fast as the supply of seeds and seedlings available, and that’s an ongoing issue here. American Forests has taken an innovative approach to address this, working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife, and community groups. Together, we collect seeds from wild thornforest plants, like Texas Ebony — which are often found on privately owned lands and require collaboration with landowners. Once scouted and collected, the seeds are then processed, grown into seedlings at nurseries and replanted across the fragmented landscape. This process provides the genetically diverse native plants needed for replanting and maintains a major food source for wildlife.
Engaging the local community is central to the restoration plan. American Forests is heavily involved in Rio Reforestation, an annual event in the Valley that combines hands-on conservation, community interaction, and long-term ecological benefits. Hundreds of acres of thornforest have been planted by eager volunteers — school groups, churches, community groups, scout groups and others — who have come out every year since 1992. It not only builds a deep connection between the community and the thornforest but also provides much needed assistance to get as many seedlings in the ground as possible — a win for the people of the Rio Grande Valley and the wildlife.
For 150 years, American Forests and our partners have stood for ensuring that all wildlife have healthy forests in which they can thrive. When wildlife thrive for years to come, they help support the biodiversity of the overall forest ecosystem, which allows forests to thrive and provide the most benefits for people for future generations.