WITH WHAT SEEMS LIKE CONTINUOUS congressional proposals to give or sell federal lands to states or private entities, American Forests is diligent in our advocacy for the smart use of public lands for the benefit of the American people. Ever since the creation of our public lands, there has been debate about how to strike the proper balance in their use, and we have been a part of that debate since nearly the beginning. It has been a staple of American Forests’ agenda since 1875, motivating us to advocate for the Forest Service and the creation of our National Park System. So it’s not surprising that a peek into the past of American Forests magazine would reveal that these issues appeared in the publication throughout our history. But what may be unexpected is the form this sometimes took: cartoons. Gib Crockett was an award-winning American editorial cartoonist. Best known for his prolific career at the Washington Evening Star, Crockett also did freelance work. In the 1950s and 70s, American Forests had the pleasure of publishing several of his cartoons in our magazine — sometimes even reworked to feature the organization. The cartoons brought wit and humor to some of the most divisive environmental issues of the day. As it turns out, these issues are no less relevant today and the cartoons continue to resonate in American Forests’ advocacy work.

The Great Land Grab

By Rebecca Turner

The tension surrounding grazing on public lands dates back to when vast acres of land were first acquired by the United States. Livestock grazing took over much of the expansive lands of the West — at first, with no objections. New lands acquired by the United States in transactions such as the Louisiana Purchase were simply public domain. But with use by many different industries and interest groups, it wasn’t long before the land was shouldering a heavy burden; soon, attempts were made to prevent over-grazing and soil deterioration that was largely associated with the livestock industry. In order to do so, there needed to be orderly use of public lands and jurisdiction to enforce it. In 1953, American Forests successfully advocated against the Uniform Federal Grazing Tenancy Act. Known as the “stockmen’s grazing bills,” H.R. 4023 and S. 1491 attempted to create a monopoly for a small number of people within the western livestock industry, to put “certain, privileged livestock operators at the top in management of our western public lands,” as Arthur H. Carhart put it in “They Still Covet Our Lands,” in the April 1953 issue of American Forests.

In Gib Crockett’s After Four Years, the Same Old “Pitch” Man, these operators are depicted in the form of a stealthy snake oil salesman, peddling hooey to a susceptible government. According to a Washington Post editorial of that year, it was a “thoroughly mischievous bill to give stockmen what amounts to a property interest in public grazing lands in the national forests.” This attempt was one in a line of what was known at the time as “The Great Land Grab.” Lobbyists proposed numerous ways to transfer land rights from the American people to those with their own limited interests in that land.

While Crockett’s American Forests — in the form of a shrewd, no-nonsense, bespectacled man — is shown dragging the federal government away from its temptation, in real life, we were not alone in our opposition to the bill. (In fact, this may be reflected in other versions of the cartoon, in which the bespectacled man is labeled simply “Public.”) Other livestock industry representatives, as well as those with other businesses that depend on the public land, conservation groups and notable members of the public expressed their concern over the bill. A representative from the Izaak Walton League of America, a current and long-time partner of American Forests, said at the time that “the Secretary of Agriculture today is the official agent of the general public, who are the real owners of the national forests. This bill would make the Secretary subservient to those relatively few persons who enjoy the privilege of grazing on those public properties.” Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt also commented “We cannot trust private 1875–2015 interests not to overgraze the lands … Human nature being what it is, we cannot expect from individuals as great a concern for the good of the country as a whole as for their own particular desire of the moment …”

With the efforts of key conservation groups, private interests, and the Eisenhower Administration, the bill ultimately failed. However, the issue remains, and American Forests continues to advocate for the smart use of public lands for the health of our forests. While we have not been as active with grazing permits on national forest lands lately, we have advocated for smart policies regarding other uses of our public forest lands including the limitation of hydraulic fracturing in national forests and increased restoration efforts to counter the effects of abandoned mine lands in forests. In fact, mining on forestland is another issue that has been on American Forests’ radar since close to the beginning.

Mining Public Pockets

By Erin Sandlin

When it comes to mining, one historical example of contrasting interests is the still-relevant Mining Act of 1872. Ever since its creation, the law has been under immense scrutiny. The Mining Act was created in response to the newly acquired land in the American West. In the chaos of the 1848 California Gold Rush, Congress was eager to stimulate public interest in settling the frontier. The incentive they used was simple: Move west, find a patch of the newly acquired federal land, mine precious metals on it and keep profits with no payment to the government. Centuries later, little effort has been made to fix the problems this law created.

At the time the law was enacted, awareness of and concern for the environmental impacts of different types of land-use was minimal. But the nation was on the cusp of a new mentality toward natural resources. The founding of American Forests just three years after the mining law was enacted led to a new meaning for the term “conservation” — one of conserving our natural wonders and natural resources. Since then, American Forests has expressed the need for mining law reform to protect our public lands from destructive mineral development and to include the public in decisions about the best use for public lands. Mining techniques have become increasingly damaging to the environment. Intense mining operations compromise growing conditions for many trees, making natural regeneration difficult or impossible without help. Yet, because of this decades-old law, mining on public land still allows for miners to dig a fortune from public land without giving a share to the citizens who own it. Crockett expresses the irony of this concept in a cartoon accompanying the 1953 American Forests article, “Two Determined Women.” The 1872 Mining Code gives sizable benefits to the special interests depicted as larger-than-life bullies — not just miners, but also others using vague language and loopholes in the law to their advantage — but strips the public’s right to decide what they want to do with their lands, even as those lands are nominally designated as “public.”

American Forests has long supported the need for increased provisions regarding mining operations on public lands. Another Crockett cartoon depicts the organization — or, in other versions, simply the public — as impatiently pushing for the much needed reform of the 1872 Mining Code. While it is important to recognize the benefits of having a source for domestic minerals, American Forests advocates for the responsible use of our national forests by balancing natural resource allocation, tourism industries, commercial interests and public use. A law that allows mining companies to transform public land into private land for no more than five dollars an acre is not a law that considers the best interests of our nation’s forests — or our nation’s people. American Forests continues to advocate for safe mining practices in order to help protect forest health. Today, we also reforest and restore areas that have been damaged by mining practices through our Global ReLeaf program, planting trees on lands damaged by surface mining activities. Efforts to reclaim minefields are an important part of our mission to protect and restore forests.

To learn more of our advocacy efforts, visit our Action Center and become a Forest Advocate to receive Action Alerts notifying you of opportunities to engage your elected officials on these and other issues.

The post The Art of Advocacy appeared first on American Forests.

AT THE FOREST SERVICE NURSERY in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, U.S. Forest Service geneticist Mary Frances Mahalovich subjects hundreds of whitebark pine seedlings to spores of blister rust, an invasive fungus that has weakened or killed many whitebark pines throughout the American West. But Mahalovich is betting that most of these seedlings will survive, just as similar seedlings have in previous rounds of testing.

Her confidence comes from knowing that the seedlings are from good stock. Fifteen years ago, she read studies showing that five to 20 percent of white pines exhibited resistance to blister rust and thought there was a chance that similar resistance lurked in whitebark pine since the two pines are closely related. So she started hunting for the trees that would spawn a new generation of whitebark pine. Wandering through the high-elevation forests of Montana and Idaho, she found matriarchal whitebark pines that seemed to have survived the choking tendrils of blister rust. Their seeds were painstakingly gathered and planted at the Forest Nursery. Those that survived the rustresistance test would be sent out to repopulate dwindling whitebark pine stands. A chosen few have been protected in Forest Service seed orchards to become the parents of a new line of disease-resistant trees. “Mary was really kind of the mastermind behind a lot of this,” says Jodie Canfield, wildlife program director at Gallatin National Forest. “There were 15 areas where she found trees that were in a rust environment that exhibited some sort of tolerance. Those we called ‘plus-trees.’”

The Forest Service still protects and harvests seeds from most of the 181 plus-trees, the pioneers of the next cohort of whitebark pine that may have one fewer threat to battle. “A few years ago, it was painted as this disaster story, like it’s the end of whitebark pine, it’s toast,” Canfield says. “But what we’re finding through our statistical monitoring is that it’s not as badas some would say.” But blister rust isn’t the only threat. As mountain pine beetles, species competition and climate change add to the whitebark’s burden, can the next generation mature fast enough to preserve the species? One of the ways the Forest Service is accelerating the evolutionary process is by selecting traits without waiting for nature to do it. Similar to testing for rust resistance, Mahalovich is sampling her 1,300 seedlings to see which ones can stand colder temperatures. Then, because scientists have found that drought tolerance is correlated with certain chemical or isotope ratios in each individual tree, she’s analyzing each seedling’s isotope profile, so she can pre-select which of her seedlings might have that trait also. The best tree for the future would be a rust-resistant tree that could better tolerate drought and the cold of the highest mountaintops, where beetles are less likely to attack.

2012 saw the first planting of seedlings that might be able to fend off blister rust. Since then, the Forest Service has planted more than 81,000 rust-resistant seedlings in burned areas of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, thanks in part to matching donations from American Forests. Forest Service researchers have discovered much about whitebark pine in just 15 years. But obviously, there’s still more to learn. Canfield says the hard part is keeping the continuity of such a long-term project, but Mahalovich, at least, says she’s sticking around until at least 2020 when she hopes to have processed all the data on her current studies.

Laura Lundquist is a Bozeman native and a graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism who writes for the Bozeman Chronicle. This article is an excerpt from “Accelerating Adaptation,” originally published on American Forests’ website. Read the full article at americanforests.org/AcceleratingAdaptation.

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FORESTS MAY NOT HAVE BEEN John Aston Warder’s first passion, but they were arguably his greatest. The founder of American Forests enjoyed a successful career in medicine for 20 years before following in his father’s footsteps by moving his family to a farm to focus on another of his passions — horticulture. The year was 1885 and Dr. Warder and his wife had just purchased an old farm that had once belonged to President Harrison overlooking the Ohio River in North Bend, Ohio. There, Warder began the experiments in horticulture and forestry that would earn him his place in the history books. He planted countless trees, hedges and fruit-bearing plants on the property, which inspired him to write many articles and three books on the subject.

Of all Warder’s writings, “Hedges and Evergreens” and his report on forests and forestry from the 1873 International Exhibition in Vienna are thought to have had the most impact on the field of forestry and helped shape what would come to be known as forest policy even before such a thing existed. These writings were ahead of their time, recommending to conserve forests at a time when forestland was typically spoken of in terms of clear-cuts and profits. Warder advised taking stock of the beauty of forests and recommended that they be utilized to reduce erosion and offer wind protection in the western United States. These words struck a chord with proponents of trees around the country and even made it into the hands of Gifford Pinchot — who later would become the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service — when he was still a student at Yale University.

The fruit of his dedication and efforts was the creation of the American Forestry Association in 1875, now called American Forests. Warder and other concerned forest lovers met in Chicago that September and founded the organization, dedicated to preserving and restoring forests around the country. Over the next seven years, he led the organization through its infancy, establishing a new meaning for the term “conservation” and helping transform the concept of preserving forests from a fringe idea to a respected cause. Warder stepped down in 1882, but continued to work for forests as an agent in the Department of Agriculture until his passing a year later at age 70. He is now buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati under an oak tree he had planted in that spot. A perfect resting place for a man that gave his life to trees everywhere.

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Sydney Mucha served as American Forests spring 2015 communications intern and is working toward a graduate degree in environmental studies at American University.

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By Sydney Mucha

FOREST RESTORATION is not for the impatient. There is no instant gratification in this work. Some species are faster-growing than others, of course, but patience is of the essence.

The restoration work at the Black Ridge — part of the Southern Ute Tribe lands in Colorado — illustrates the forbearance required — and the payoff. In 1994, this area experienced a devastating wildfire. More than 13,000 acres of pinyon pine and juniper were scorched by the lightning-caused blaze, making it one of the worst fires on record according to the reservation’s history. In 1996, with support from Eddie Bauer, American Forests Global ReLeaf planted 62,000 pinyon pines — a process that would have taken decades to reseed naturally. Survival rates are difficult to predict, particularly in the arid Southwest.

At Black Ridge, some areas have done better than others. While the overall survival rate stands at 21 percent, some north facing slopes have experienced a 50 percent survival rate. While pinyon pines are small trees and slow growing — some are just a few feet tall now — the intervening years have made a great deal of difference to the Black Ridge ecosystem and the Southern Ute Tribe. The surviving trees are exhibiting vigor and the Southern Ute Tribe considers this Global ReLeaf project a success. They believe that the pinyon pines are now fully established so that the reforestation process will continue naturally, albeit slowly. One day, this forest will be re-established. The members of the Southern Ute Tribe, as well as native wildlife, will be able to enjoy the forest and all its wonders.

Sydney Mucha served as American Forests’ spring 2015 communications intern and is working toward a graduate degree in environmental studies at American University.

The post The Waiting Game appeared first on American Forests.

IN 1990, A TREE WAS PLANTED in Au Sable, Mich., that was the first of 50 million trees and counting. It was the very first tree planted as part of the American Forests Global ReLeaf program, to address global challenges facing forests through local action. It was one of 23,000 trees planted in Au Sable State Forest that year. The next year, Global ReLeaf planted its first international trees in two areas in Hungary. Today, the program has planted trees in 45 countries, all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Some of these restoration sites were damaged by wildfires that burned too intensely after years of misguided fire suppression. Others have been damaged by strip mining or invasive species or have become fragmented habitat through which wildlife can’t move freely. But they all have at least one thing in common: They are not expected to regenerate on their own. They need a helping hand to regain their health. And the health of these ecosystems is connected to our health too, as more than half of the drinking water in the U.S. originates in forests, and forests clean our air and sequester carbon.

Just like Global ReLeaf forests, as varied as they are, all Global ReLeaf projects have something in common as well. They have all depended on our close collaborations with a diverse group of partners. We have partnered with the U.S. Forest Service; U.S. Bureau of Land Management; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; state parks, forests and wildlife areas; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Soil and Water Conservation Districts; nonprofit conservation and tree planting organizations; American Indian nations; the Natural Resources Conservation Service; counties; communities; and schools. In its 25th year, as we celebrate Global ReLeaf’s 1,000th project and the planting of our 50 millionth tree, we look back at some of the work we’ve done.

PROJECT: Kirtland’s Warbler Habitat Planting

START YEAR: 1990
TOTAL TREES: 1.7 million
PARTNERS: Michigan Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Forest Service

That first tree in Au Sable would become one of more than 1.7 million jack pine planted in several projects throughout Michigan over the next 25 years to improve the habitat of the endangered Kirtland’s warbler. The Kirtland’s warbler is a very particular bird, to put it lightly. They breed and nest in only one species — jack pine. What’s more, they only select stands of jack pine between six and 22 years of age. This very specific habitat has suffered from the development of farms and roads and the suppression of fire that is critical for the pine’s reproduction. By 1951, the Kirtland’s warbler population of singing males was just 500. Today, things are looking up for the warbler. By 2011, the population of singing males had rebounded to 1,828. A visit to Hiawatha National Forest reveals jack pine of diverse ages that represent many different stages of this multi-year initiative. Trees planted in the early days of the project are being utilized by the warblers now, while recently planted seedlings hold the promise of future habitat for the birds. These seedlings will become increasingly important as climate change continues to push the warblers — and the jack pine — north.

PROJECT: Farmland Phase-Out and Revegetation

START YEAR: 1997
TOTAL TREES: 1.5 million
PARTNERS: Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

It may not be the oldest project, but our longest-running continuous project can be found in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge where we have been planting trees for 18 consecutive years. Specifically, we have been restoring the talmulipan brushland, a dense mixture of trees and shrubs that serves as home for a number of wildlife species, including the endangered ocelot. In the U.S., ocelots are found only in South Texas. They have been listed as endangered since the 1970s when the population had dwindled to fewer than 50 animals. It’s not hard to see why.

A whopping 95 percent of this area’s forests were cleared for agricultural use, leaving only small bits of habitat cut off from one another. “The area was so heavily fragmented,” says Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge manager, Gisela Chapa, “somebody needed to provide restoration efforts so wildlife would have safe passage between one tract of land to another one.” American Forests was happy to join the cause. That first year, we planted more than 21,000 native trees on 100 acres and have since planted more than 1.5 million trees to create a wildlife corridor here so that animals, including birds, butterflies, snakes and tortoises, can move more freely through their range. Today, the ocelot population in the U.S. has rebounded to 80 – 100 ocelot. The cats have been observed in the restoration area, a sign that our efforts are paying off.

Watch the video about this project here.

PROJECT: Whatcom County ReLeaf

START YEAR: 1999
TOTAL TREES: 137,920
PARTNERS: Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, Alcoa Foundation

1999 was a good year for salmon. Oregon governor John Kitzhaber and the National Marine Fisheries Service dropped a legal fight to keep Oregon coastal Coho salmon from being added to the federal Endangered Species List. The fish was listed after an appeals court ruled against the state’s plan, which would have put the fish’s recovery in state hands. That year, Kitzhaber also issued an executive order that would include all state agencies in an effort to restore all salmon species. In 2015, the Coho salmon is still federally listed as endangered in parts of California and as threatened in many other parts of its range. Also in 1999, in Washington D.C., the Clinton administration pledged $100 million in federal support for restoration programs throughout the Pacific Northwest. So, salmon were having legal victories as the new millennium approached, but 1999 also marked the first year of our Global ReLeaf work with the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) in Whatcom County, Wash.

That year, we planted 13,700 trees across 20 acres there to improve stream habitat and increase salmon populations in lowland streams. It was one of three salmon habitat restoration projects Global ReLeaf undertook that year, but the project in Whatcom County would turn into a multi-year partnership. We joined NSEA four more times to plant a total of 47,920 trees by 2005. But, that turned out not to be the end of the story. In 2011, we teamed up with the Alcoa Foundation to form the Alcoa Foundation and American Forests Partnership for Trees Program. With Alcoa’s help, we not only returned to Whatcom County, but were able to plant more than 80,000 more trees at a number of different sites over the next five years. This year, we’re planting another 10,000 trees together as well as engaging more than 1,000 volunteers in riparian habitat restoration. It takes many years, but the salmon habitat of Whatcom County is heading ever upstream.

Watch the video about this project here.

PROJECT: Forest for Monarchs

PARTNERS: La Cruz Habitat Protection Project
START YEAR: 2006
TOTAL TREES: 1.08 million

True to its name, Global ReLeaf does not only work to restore forests in the U.S. The program has planted trees in forests in need in 45 countries over the years, from Chile to China, Kenya to Korea. In 2015, we added Madagascar to the list. One of our longest running international projects, however, has been in our nation’s neighbor, Mexico. We have worked since 2006 in Michoacán, Mexico, to restore habitat for the monarch butterfly and — by doing so — preserve one of nature’s most mysterious and awe-inspiring phenomena. The beautiful monarch butterfly has intrigued scientists for decades, as the monarchs that make their way back to Michoacán in the fall have never actually been there before. They are the great grandchildren of the butterflies that left Mexico the previous spring for the journey northward. Mature butterflies only live for two to six weeks, so it takes multiple generations of butterflies to make the migrations northward each spring.

However, the monarch butterflies that make their way south each year have some sort of superpower. They can live for up to seven months in order to survive the journey, make it through the winter and mate in the spring. Scientists have yet to figure out how they find their way back to the same wintering grounds year after year with no guide or familiarity with the route. What we do know is that when they get there, they depend on the oyamel fir forests for their wintering habitat. With our partner, La Cruz Habitat Protection Project, we have planted more than a million trees, mostly oyamel fir. Today, one of the major threats to monarchs is the use of pesticides on some of their preferred plants along the migration route. But, those who make it will always need healthy habitat to come home to, and we continue to protect and restore the oyamel forests of Michoacán. In 2013, Michoacán also became the site of our first Forestscape.

Check our our upcoming Forestscape excursions and other events.

Jami Westerhold, Esq., is responsible for the strategic development and management of American Forests’ Forest Restoration programs, including Global ReLeaf and Endangered Western Forests. Jami has worked in the environmental and conservation arena for more than 10 years. Prior to joining American Forests, Jami served in U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ office, working on environmental issues. Previously, she worked for U.S. Senator John Barrasso, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and also developed a pilot program for the Bureau of Land Management that identified and located environmental features and has since been implemented agency-wide. Jami earned a Master of Environmental Law and Policy and Juris Doctor from Vermont Law School and holds a Bachelor of Arts in environmental studies from Green Mountain College.

Megan works to select, support and facilitate communication with on-the-ground partners for many of American Forests’ restoration activities. Prior to joining American Forests, Megan interned at a local United Way and worked for La Ceiba Microfinance Institution, a student-run microfinance nonprofit that works with impoverished communities in Honduras. While at La Ceiba MFI, she assisted with several rounds of field work and directed an initiative utilizing recycled, repurposed products to develop economic autonomy for local women in El Progreso, Honduras. She holds a dual Bachelor of Science degree in economics and environmental science from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. Megan has been working with American Forests for nearly four years and thoroughly enjoys the relationships she has built and the amazing ecosystem restoration work she has been a part of.

The post 25 Years of Global ReLeaf appeared first on American Forests.

By Ian Leahy

When American Forests named Washington, D.C. one of the 10 Best Cities for Urban Forests in 2013, residents were quick to tweet their pride. With the famous National Mall supporting 17,000 trees; the nation’s first urban park, Rock Creek Park; and more than 7,000 acres of parkland, D.C. earned its place on the list without breaking a sweat.

But it wasn’t always this way. The District of Columbia of the 1990s was suffering from a quarter century of profound disinvestment, following the national trend of shifting economies to suburban locales. In a city also reeling from a crack epidemic and an annual murder rate nearly five times what it is today, the tree canopy had fallen by the wayside as a priority.

The revolution that would turn the urban forest’s fate around began when two images made the front page of The Washington Post’s Metro section in 1999. One was a satellite image of Washington, D.C.’s tree canopy in 1973, the other in 1997. Both were from a study American Forests had conducted of the District’s tree canopy. The story needed no words: From the perspective of the 30-meter resolution available at the time, one image was predominantly green, the other looked like a tornado had ripped through a majority of the nation’s capital.

That story in the Post sparked a citywide conversation about what priorities residents value and the type of city they felt the nation’s capital should be.

The timing was right. In the years leading up to the Post article, a body of intriguing research had begun to emerge about the relationship between people and vegetation. Long thought to be extraneous window dressing for communities that could afford to care about such niceties, the role of nature in cities began to come into greater focus. It was already well known that vegetation is critical to keeping all the trash and toxins swept up in rain and snow melt from pouring into our waterways; it was also well established how critical vegetation is to catching particulate matter and absorbing carbon dioxide that would otherwise enter our lungs and atmosphere. But in the late 90s, a new realm of more abstract understanding was coming into focus. All else being equal, urban landscapes with trees had been shown to significantly reduce crime and domestic violence rates. Hospital patients with a view of nature from their rooms recovered 48 percent faster after surgery. Obesity rates, energy bills and symptoms of attention deficit disorder have proven to be lower. Property values and student grades, when interacting with nature on a daily basis, have proven to be higher.

Urban forestry professionals can regurgitate such findings in their sleep today — there’s not one of us who hasn’t had to pull a handy stat out at a community meeting or policy hearing — but at the time, these concepts were groundbreaking. They revealed a deep connection between nature, society and psychology that few had realized existed. Suddenly, urban forests were part of the conversation about substantive socioeconomic matters and trees became more than just pretty window dressing.

CHANGE COMES TO WASHINGTON

There were, of course, already organizations that had been working for years in Washington, D.C., intuitively using nature as a tool for empowering the most disenfranchised residents. Washington Parks and People, for example, took it upon themselves when no one else would — not even the federal government who owned the land — to engage the local community in reclaiming and restoring parks such as the Italian-inspired Meridian Hill Park in Northwest D.C. and Marvin Gaye Park, named for the local music legend, in the Northeast quadrant. Earth Conservation Corps almost single-handedly brought wild bald eagles back to the nation’s capital in the 1990s, where they thrive today, yet tragically lost several of their members to street violence in the process.

However, the conversation that emerged from American Forests’ analysis of the tree canopy around the turn of the 21st century led to two monumental breakthroughs on a scale that would redefine urban forestry for Washington, D.C. The first was a single philanthropist, Betty Brown Casey. She took up the cause as her own and, with a $50 million endowment, launched Casey Trees, a local nonprofit with a fully operational nursery whose sole purpose has been to stabilize, grow and protect the city’s tree canopy. They have worked since 2002 with a staff of arborists and dedicated volunteers, planting trees and raising the profile of tree issues in the District.

The other breakthrough came from the city itself. Then-Mayor Anthony Williams turned a small landscaping division that had about a one million dollar budget tucked into a corner of the Department of Public Works into the $8-million-a-year Urban Forestry Administration (UFA) housed in the District Department of Transportation, where its staff could proactively manage street trees and respond to emergencies in conjunction with other transportation matters. Today, UFA has an even more robust budget and a staff of forestry professionals with various master’s degrees and sometimes even Ph.D.’s managing the city’s tree canopy. As a result, the massive backlog of dangerous dead limbs and street trees has been eliminated, about 8,000 new trees are being planted every year, they have expanded to include management of park trees and, most importantly, the District’s tree canopy is growing again, up to about 37 percent on its way to a citywide goal of 40 percent by 2032.

It takes years for results like this to play out, both politically and ecologically, but sparking this type of local momentum is exactly the goal American Forests seeks to achieve in the cities where we make strategic financial and technical investments today. Our flagship urban program, Community ReLeaf, is now in 11 cities nationwide and, with support from both the U.S. Forest Service and Bank of America, among other corporate partners, expanding to more this year. In each, we work with local city agencies and tree care nonprofits, when they exist, to figure out the specific needs of the community. When appropriate, we conduct a scientific urban ecosystem analysis using sub-meter resolution aerial imagery and i-Tree software that identify opportunities for planting and provide scientifically valid values for the relationship between such factors as various air pollutants, income and ethnicity, hospital visits and even mortality incidents. This analysis guides our subsequent urban forest restoration projects, community outreach and local policy efforts in each city.

PIONEERS IN URBAN FORESTRY

American Forests has actually been a pioneer in urban forestry since before the field had a name, helping to define the standards of arboriculture in the early twentieth century and organizing
conferences as early as the 1970s. Our formal urban forests program launched in 1982, helping to create the Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry program through the 1990 Farm Bill and pioneering satellite imagery analyses beginning in 1995. The field has matured a great deal since, creating robust tree protection laws in cities nationwide, fostering new organizations and city agencies, and launching high-profile initiatives like Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s MillionTreesNYC, a partnership with Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project, to plant — as you might imagine — one million trees throughout New York’s five boroughs.

As that effort reaches its goal ahead of schedule this year, the question looms: what next? It was a good start, but American Forests believes the next revolution in urban greening needs to
create truly, fundamentally green cities — cities where vegetation is built into nearly every facet of urban infrastructure.

To that end, we are implementing high-concept design projects that integrate with diverse disciplines and address specific socioeconomic concerns. For example, in Miami we are working with public health and county partners through their Million Trees Miami initiative to use underutilized green space as a tool for addressing obesity issues in an immigrant community. In Austin, we are developing a hack-a-thon with the local tech community to build stronger technology tools for the specific drought needs the city faces. In Detroit, having already conducted a forest inventory analysis and implemented restoration projects in the beleaguered 1,200-acre Rouge Park, we are focusing on restoring vacant land for innovative, hands-on outdoor education space.

Our work in Washington, D.C. continues as well, going deeper than ever before. American Forests is launching a new Community ReLeaf initiative in D.C. that provides an exciting opportunity to focus on not only restoring tree canopy on private and other properties in areas where tree canopy has been shown to be in decline, but also pioneering innovative means of engaging residents in the process.

To that end, we have three transformational restoration and engagement projects just getting underway across the District. For one, we have been able to bring the entire force of D.C.’s building industry — architects, engineers, and hundreds of volunteers — through the District of Columbia Building Industry Association to help create a portable urban farm and orchard on three acres in the Capitol View neighborhood in the far eastern corner of the city. This farm will serve a rapidly changing city like D.C. well by being able to adjust to its ever changing landscape. We are also working with local nonprofit and government partners to enhance the use of mapping technologies as a tool to improve community stewardship of new trees being planted. The third project is a living memorial space that has the potential to psychologically connect people to nature in truly groundbreaking ways, both celebrating the lives of those lost to violence and providing a path forward for those still struggling today.

As has often been the case for over a century, American Forests is pushing new boundaries for the forests where people live. Today, we are forging collaborations with new industries and thinking outside the box for bringing high-quality vegetation to people and places that might not otherwise have access to it. Our ultimate goal is to bring urban forestry to its rightful place on the forefront of addressing the most pressing issues and dynamic visions for the future.

Ian Leahy is focused on developing innovative American Forests programs that help communities better improve and manage their urban forest assets over the long term. Before joining the organization in 2014, Ian worked throughout the urban forestry field in nonprofit, municipal operations and state government roles, in addition to being a landscape design and installation business owner in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He most recently served as the State Urban and Community Forestry Coordinator for the District of Columbia. Before that he worked as an urban forestry instructor for Baltimore’s Department of Recreation and Parks and as the Managing Editor of the publication Communities and Forests. After studying Natural Resource Policy and Management at Cornell University, Ian’s first job was at American Forests, implementing community-based forestry initiatives nationwide.

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In September 1940, concerned forester Joseph Stearns authored an article in this magazine entitled “Let’s Find and Save the Biggest Trees.” He ended the article with an appeal: “If an organization is necessary to accomplish this, then let’s organize. Or, and this might prove more immediately effective, let every tree lover, every forester, every lumberman rally behind some established national forest conservation organization able and willing to fight for the preservation of our biggest tree specimens.”

American Forests immediately rose to the challenge. The National Big Tree Program was established that same year and the national register of American Forests Champion Trees — then called the American Big Trees Report — was published the following year. The national register in 1941 included 77 champions. Today, there are 781 and the program is active in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Of course, the number of champions in the register is not the only thing that’s changed. In 1989, The Davey Tree Expert Company came on board as the official sponsor of the program. In the quarter-century since, they have helped increase awareness about champion trees’ vital role in the environment and produced one of the program’s most popular publications — the National Big Tree Program calendar.

Now in its 75th year, the program has become stronger than ever as we continue to advance the scientific rigor of the nomination process. In 2013, two working groups — the Eligible Species Working Group and the Measuring Guidelines Working Group — were established, bringing experts together to address some of the most challenging questions surrounding the identification of champion trees. Earlier this year, thanks to months of work by the Measuring Guidelines Working Group, American Forests published the comprehensive Tree-measuring Guidelines Handbook to help nominators of champions navigate the complex science of measuring trees, including how to calculate leaning trees, trees on sloped ground and crowns that cannot be accessed. The handbook also sets clear standards for measuring multi-stemmed trees — all to help ensure accuracy and integrity in the register.

Through several name changes, digitalization, updated rules and more, the program’s core message has remained the same: Regardless of size, all trees are champions of the environment. American Forests Champion Trees represent the potential of all trees.

TREE PEOPLE

Finding, measuring, cataloguing and publishing the nation’s largest trees is no small feat. It’s all made possible by a vast network of supporters, from the Big Tree Coordinators in every State to sponsors like The Davey Tree Expert Company.

And, at the start of the whole process, there are those who find these trees. Anyone can discover and nominate a champion tree. But, some people, once they get the taste of it, never stop. They are the Big Tree Hunters — champion tree enthusiasts and adventurers who head out into the unknown seeking new trees. A few Big Tree Hunters have shared some of their stories for the 140th Anniversary Edition of the magazine that started it all.

Will Blozan

CO-FOUNDER OF THE NATIVE TREE SOCIETY

Why did you become a Big Tree Hunter?
I used to read a profile of a champion tree in each American Forests magazine. I thought they had all been found but soon realized that was not the case. Armed with a degree in environmental studies and forest biology, I went to work mapping old-growth forests of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I had over a dozen national champs in my first year there and was setting new park records. The passion struck.

Do you have a favorite among the trees you’ve nominated
The eastern hemlock, Virginia pine, mountain silverbell, Carolina hemlock… Oh man, all of them.

What advice do you have for aspiring Big Tree Hunters or measurers?
Take note of the ecology of the species: where it gets big, where it doesn’t and what it associates with. Look at land position and where they tend to do best. This will hone your search and greatly increase your success rate.

Robert Van Pelt

WASHINGTON STATE BIG TREE COORDINATOR 

How did you become a Big Tree Hunter?

My passion for trees blossomed in college and then really took a leap forward when I saw the book “Wisconsin Champion Trees” by Bruce Allison. Here were the extremes of the tree world, all cataloged. Several were in and around Madison, and I just had to visit them. After some more digging, I learned that many states kept records for trees, and that a master list for the nation was kept by what was then the AFA — now called American Forests. I ended up updating the dimensions of many of the current Wisconsin champs and even nominating a few new ones myself. Then, in 1985, I spent a summer as a cook in Olympic National Park. Learning that the national champion grand fir grew only a few hundred feet away from the lodge, I tracked it down only to discover that it was a log — a moss-covered log, at that. I contacted American Forests to find out where the current champion was, but they did not even know the former crown-holder was dead. It was then that I learned that Washington was one of the only states not to have a big tree coordinator. This was odd, I thought, since Washington has some of the largest trees in the world! I volunteered for the position and began to track down potential new champions. Together with Seattle arborist Arthur Jacobson, I began exploring the Olympics and Cascades. Within a few years, Washington went from having 13 national champs to having 50!

How did you first discover or come to nominate the Sitka spruce? How about the common pear?

I have probably tried every possible method to track down big trees, but still one of the best ways is to talk to people. That is how I first came to see the Quinault Lake spruce, in 1985. I was freaking out — here I was, a young kid from the Midwest and may have just uncovered a national champion! My glory was short-lived, however, as a controversy immediately arose about which tree was really the largest. Sitka spruce requires nurse logs to get established. If the logs were from gigantic trees, the root systems of the trees that establish on top of them become gigantic, often with bizarre shapes. Such is the case with these two trees, even though their nurse logs had rotted away centuries earlier. My friend Arthur suggested to American Forests that the nominators of the two trees re-measure both trees on the same weekend with the same equipment. This brilliant suggestion provided me with my first opportunity to meet the legendary Maynard Drawson. To call Maynard a colorful character would be a gross understatement. He was a barber, historian, comedian and tree hunter, with a gift for storytelling. It was a weekend I will never forget. In the end, the trees were declared co-champions. I was able to spend more time with Maynard, and he is the first one who mentioned a giant pear tree in an onion field near Walla Walla. When I tracked it down, I was truly amazed to see a pear tree as big as an oak!

Do you have a favorite among the trees you’ve nominated?

That’s a tough one. The Sitka spruce and vine maple are special to me, because they were my first — in 1986. The intermountain bristlecone pine was a special find — and has a special story behind it.

Mario Vaden

OREGON CERTIFIED ARBORIST

Why did you decide to become a Big Tree Hunter?
My time in forests had mostly been exploring for fun, mainly to see what was out there, whether small flowers, trees or mossy rocks. At some point, I read about other tree explorers on the West Coast and the big trees they had found in northern California. I decided I could find a few previously discovered giants and eventually located several of the largest and tallest redwoods in northern California. Little did I know, well-known researchers like Dr. Steve Sillett of Humboldt State University and Big Tree Hunters like Michael Taylor had seen photos I’d posted online. Maybe they could tell I keep my mouth shut about locations. Or maybe it’s because I love trees. But after about a year, they both contacted me independently, and I began joining them on explorations, along with other big names of the Big Tree world, like Robert Van Pelt. They taught me basics about measuring trees and what they look for in the forest to try and find new giants or world record trees. I enjoy looking for the biggest and tallest trees along the West Coast, but what I appreciate more is learning about what these species are capable of.

You nominated a coast redwood this year that fell just shy of becoming a new champion. How did you find it?
When we hit the forest, we explored new territory that was previously unexplored and overlapped old stomping grounds as well, double-checking for trees that may have been missed. Some of these giants are visible between the trees and brush for a matter of seconds while bushwhacking and could be missed in the course of talking in the woods. So we cover new ground and old.For pure visual impact, this new coast redwood discovery (one of several), blows away the General Sherman giant sequoia when it comes to photographic illustration showing human next to trunk for scale comparison. The Sherman has more cubic feet, but the coast redwood has a broader trunk that’s jaw-dropping in photos. One key to finding these trees is to not accept the belief that they have all been found. It takes an open mind. As Dr. Robert Van Pelt says in his book, “Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast,” “there is always a bigger one out there somewhere.”

THE PEOPLE’S CHAMPIONS

Every tree that is nominated to be an American Forests Champion Tree is allotted a number of points based upon its measurements. To become a champion, it must have the most points of any other known tree of its species. If trees are within five points of each other, co-champions are crowned. Trees with 650 or more points are known as mega-trees.

But while measurement buffs could talk about this stuff all day (If you are one, check out our Measuring Guidelines Handbook for all the juicy details at americanforests.org/bigtree), many average Champion Tree enthusiasts are more interested in the charm of these trees than their “stats.” That’s why Big Tree Madness is such a hit. For the past three years, Big Tree Madness has taken place online during the NCAA’s March Madness in March and April. It’s a chance for people to vote for their favorite tree — for whatever reason they choose. Since the first Big Tree Madness in 2013 we’ve had some majestic and even unexpected winners.

2013
The first winner of Big Tree Madness was the champion Ozark chinkapin. At a modest 62 feet, it’s not what many people think of when they hear the words “big tree.” But, its size is impressive when you take into account that the Ozark chinkapin is a member of the chestnut family, susceptible to the dreaded chestnut blight and, consequently, a species of conservation concern. Maybe that’s part of why it means so much to the legions of fans who voted for it. Not only is the wood of this amazing tree rot-resistant, it proved itself resistant to defeat in Big Tree Madness as well.

2014
The winner of the second annual Big Tree Madness competition was the champion coconut palm from Hawai‘i that came to be affectionately known as “Coco” throughout the course of the competition. Part of Coco’s special charm was that the tree was located in a culturally unique area on the island of O’ahu. According to Hawai‘i’s big tree coordinator, Sheri Mann, Coco was “part of an ancient coconut grove located in the Hāwea heiau complex and Keawawa wetland on O‘ahu. The property contains numerous petroglyphs, many ancient rock formations, agricultural terraces, burial sites and Hāwea heiau, a Hawaiian temple.” This sensitive ecological area is protected as a cultural preserve. All of this helped make Coco a fan favorite, even receiving social media support from Hawai‘i’s then-governor, Neil Abercrombie. Sadly, Coco fell in a storm later that same year.

2015
The latest champion tree chosen as a favorite by online voters is an eastern burningbush. This particular burningbush has been an American Forests Champion Tree since 2002. What sets this species apart is the shape and color of its fruit. They are thought to resemble little red hearts that can be seen as bursting with love as the seeds are released. This has made the burningbush very popular among young lovers and the birds, who can eat the poisonous fruit. But the secret to its success in Big Tree Madness may have been the love that Missourians have for the champion trees. Yes, this is the second Big Tree Madness winner to hail from the Show-me State.

Champion Trees come in all shapes and sizes! What champion tree are you? Take the quiz at buzzfeed.com/americanforests.

Bryant “Spoon” Smith began his career restoring vacant lots for Baltimore’s Parks and People Foundation. He has since worked on research initiatives at the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station in New York City and managed landscape restoration projects for Bluewater Baltimore. Bryant is a licensed pilot who, in his spare time, provides disaster relief services to disenfranchised communities. He joined American Forests in 2014. As the manager of Urban Forest Programs, he also heads the National Big Tree Program.

The post 75 Years of Champions appeared first on American Forests.

GAYLORD NELSON’S lifelong goal of putting the environment onto the nation’s political agenda began when he was a young boy in his hometown of Clear Lake, Wis. Surrounded by the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest, the largest state forest in Wisconsin, he grew up among 223,283 acres of pristine lakes and landscapes. There, he developed a strong relationship with the forests around him and his passion for nature that would fuel his political career. That political career began when the World War II veteran was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate in 1948. In 1958, he was elected Governor of Wisconsin and, during his term, he initiated the Outdoor Recreation Acquisition Program (ORAP) in Wisconsin. The program, which funded the purchase of a million acres of recreation and wildlife areas through a tax on cigarettes, was only the first of Nelson’s many notable conservation achievements.

In 1962, Nelson was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he would achieve his most famous accomplishment. Public and political attention was shifting towards various ecological problems and Senator Nelson channeled this emerging environmental consciousness into the first Earth Day. These nation-wide demonstrations and organized protests against the deterioration of the environment brought together groups concerned with a variety of environmental issues from the loss of wilderness to oil spills, air pollution and pesticides. Ever since, Earth Day has contributed to the modern environmental movement and is proof that the environment can bring diverse groups together for a common cause.

Senator Nelson passed away in 2005 at the age of 89, but his legacy continues. In his 1970 Earth Day speech, he stated, “The battle to restore a proper relationship between man and his environment, between man and other living creatures, will require a long, sustained, political, rural, ethical and financial commitment far beyond any effort we ever made before in any enterprise in the history of man.” This is a huge undertaking, but Senator Gaylord Nelson has shown that one individual’s momentum can continue to fuel society’s environmental consciousness for years to come.

Erin Sandlin served as American Forests’ spring 2015 policy intern and is a senior at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., working towards a politics degree with a minor in sustainability.

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