First ever photo contest showcases incredible community content

Washington, D.C. (August 12, 2015) – The first ever Trees Please (now Forests in Focus) photo contest, starting in late June, has ended, and the winners of the grand prize, three honorable mentions, and the People’s choice award have all been decided.

The grand prize winner is Yinghai Lu, with the submission “Checking out the Redwood Forest”. This beautiful photo was taken in the winter of 2014 in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California. If you look closely, you can see Yinghai’s friend Max in the background, appearing to be standing on the giant log. Yinghai is a native resident of California. Look for this gorgeous photo on the cover of American Forests’ fall magazine!

It was a very close competition; the honorable mentions were “Horse Chesnut at Dawn’ by Diana Fraser, “Independence I” by Jason Liske, and “Prairie Creek” by Mario Vaden. There was also a People’s Choice Award, awarded to Madeline Ligenza for “Tree Love in Vermont”.

The photo contest began earlier this summer to promote the beauty that our community sees in the natural world of our forests. It was a great success, and we expect to have similar contests in the future.

All 5 award-winning photos can be found on American Forests’ Facebook page.

ABOUT AMERICAN FORESTS

American Forests protects and restores urban and wildland forests. Founded in 1875, the first national nonprofit conservation organization in the country has served as a catalyst for many of the most important milestones in the conservation movement, including the founding of the U.S. Forest Service, the national forest and national park systems and literally thousands of forest ecosystem restoration projects and public education efforts. Since 1990, American Forests has planted nearly 50 million trees in forests throughout the U.S. and in 45 countries, resulting in cleaner air and drinking water, restored habitat for wildlife and fish, and the removal of millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Learn more at americanforests.org.

MEDIA CONTACT

Christopher Horn | Director of Communications | 202.370.4517 (direct) | 913.549.0769 (cell) | chorn@americanforests.org