American Forests is working with Baltimore Tree Trust and the Maryland Department of Labor to establish the Baltimore City Community Forestry Corps, a pre-apprenticeship program related to urban forestry. Pre-apprenticeship programs open up economic opportunities that participants may have never dreamed possible, such as allowing women to support themselves and their families for a lifetime.
American Forests also is helping the Greater Baltimore Wilderness Coalition co-lead the Planting the Future Initiative. Local and state government agencies, nonprofit organizations and others involved with the initiative seek to improve Tree Equity in the greater Baltimore region, in part by tripling the rate of tree planting there.
Previously, American Forests helped Baltimore create jobs that involve repurposing wood that would have otherwise been thrown out, such as wood from demolished buildings or trees removed to widen roadways. Reusing these materials has many benefits, including being able to store carbon in the products created with the wood and reducing the amount of wood going to landfills. Because wood reuse is a job creator in urban areas, we are working to expand the model to other cities.