American Forests’ Resilient Forests program restores forest health across the United States, Canada and Mexico. We focus on helping forests adapt to stressors that are becoming more severe and more frequent. These include extreme wildfire, deep droughts, and outbreaks of pests and disease. We also bring forests back to landscapes where they have long been lost.
By creating healthy forests, American Forests also helps to combat the climate crisis. Trees capture carbon pollution from the atmosphere and lock it safely away in their wood. The soil captures carbon too. The trees and soil, combined, make forests the most effective nature-based solution to climate change.
Reforestation is a key way that our Resilient Forests program restores forest health. With 148 million acres of former forest in the U.S. suitable for reforestation, the opportunity is gigantic. American Forests has planted more than 80 million trees in the last 30 years alone.
This program strives to achieve these goals
American Forests has developed a multipronged vision for scaling up resilient reforestation across the country. We identify priority places to plant and regenerate trees — through reforestation assessments and strategies in our priority regional programs – we partner with public agencies, private landowners, and Tribal Nations to advance resilient reforestation – we deploy a field forestry workforce at nurseries, in seed collection, and to design and carry out reforestation projects – we deliver outcomes from our reforestation partnerships for people, climate, water, and wildlife.
American Forests’ mission is built on local, regional and national partnerships. These partnerships allow us to build longer lasting solutions and policies, carry out on-the-ground projects and research ways to advance climate-informed forestry. Throughout our work, we promote principles of shared stewardship, ensuring forest restoration efforts can match the sweeping scale of our country’s forest landscapes.
