One Nation, Under Trees

As a proud non-partisan participant in the political process for nearly 150 years, American Forests celebrates another successful expression of our democracy through free and fair elections, and we congratulate President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance on their victory. Now we must urgently turn to what is next for our country, and how we can move forward together. 

This will not be easy. As we move past one of the most polarized elections in our nation’s history, it’s clear that Americans bring strong perspectives and emotions on today’s critical issues. For American Forests, this transition offers a chance to unify around shared challenges that require our collective resolve.  We see a desire across the spectrum for this unity. 

For our organization, addressing climate change, advancing greater social equity, and boosting economic opportunity and resilience are examples of immense challenges that demand we find ways to work together, especially across our differences that have sometimes held us back from delivering the complete solutions that we need. 

We know that trees and forests can be part of these solutions. We’ve witnessed firsthand how trees benefit us all and what happens when we bring people together to do the work of unlocking the natural solutions they offer, from trees in our cities to vast forest landscapes. When we care for our forests together, we have seen political lines drop away and our common humanity and connection come to the fore.  

In working with the Trump administration and newly seated U.S. Congress, American Forests will continue our 150-year history of bipartisan partnership, engaging leaders across party lines with open minds and open hearts to find common purpose and work together. Our vision of “One Nation Under Trees” speaks to our belief that we can find this connection based on the profound ways our trees and forests benefit us and a long legacy of bipartisan successes, such as the bipartisan REPLANT Act that is fixing a longstanding reforestation backlog on our National Forests. Our shared success on REPLANT and many other such policy measures over the years demonstrates that our common love of our forests transcends politics. 

As we look forward, we would be remiss not to acknowledge that this difficult campaign season at times featured language and ideas that violate our core values, most strongly our firm and unshakable belief in the equality of all people and the need to respect and care for all people in our country with policies and cultural norms alike that reflect this. As we pursue new consensus in the core forestry work of our organization, we will also continue to speak for underlying values such as equality and democracy that are fundamental to who we are.  

American Forests is hopeful that our work together with trees and forests will inspire and remind us of what we can accomplish together and reinforce our mutual respect as we take forest solutions to a new level. With so much potential and yet so many pressing issues to address, we urgently need these solutions just as we urgently need each other.