I GREW UP spending my summers on MacMahan Island in Maine, a glorious piece of nature only accessible by boat. There was a wealth of undisturbed forests and coastline to explore. Wandering this island was the defining experience of my childhood, alternately providing peaceful moments of quiet and thrilling new discoveries, such as a surprising wetland hidden in the forest or an osprey nest above a remote cove.

I think back to those memories a lot these days. We have never needed forests more to calm our minds and bring fun into our lives. It feels like American life is spiraling upward in productivity and achievement, but with a cost to our work-life balance. This fast pace seems to touch Americans of all ages — from children in school to executives in the work force.

Many people are so busy that they forget to take a walk in a forest or sit under a tree to read a book. Even many outdoor enthusiasts seem to have increasing difficulty finding time for camping, climbing, skiing, hunting and angling. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has prevented many people from being able to freely go outdoors, has both reminded us of how much we need these experiences and the increasingly diverse ways in which this is becoming more difficult.

We cannot remove all of these barriers, but I have always yearned for everyone to have maximum possible access to enjoy the outdoors, just as I was privileged to experience on MacMahan Island. I am proud that American Forests is helping to make this possible, particularly our work to protect and restore public lands that, during normal times, are open to all. Here are some great examples of this work in action:

1. Restore Recreation Areas. We recently did an analysis to see how American Forests’ reforestation work in the Sierras, Rockies, Great Lakes, Appalachia and other large forest landscapes aligns with the National Scenic Trail system. Why? When forests along these trails are damaged by wildfire, pests, disease, ice storms and more, recreation experiences also suffer. The analysis confirmed that our tree planting work with partners, such as the U.S. Forest Service, is systematically repairing the National Scenic Trails system and other priority recreation landscapes, especially where we are restoring vulnerable high-elevation forests that are easily lost and slow to recover.

2. Bring Habitats Back to Life. Our reforestation of rural landscapes, such as the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, brings forests back where they have been lost to human actions, such as clearing forests for In the Valley, much of this effort is on land purchased by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to create national wildlife refuges. That helps people enjoy these renewed forests and gives wildlife the freedom to roam. The annual birding festival in the Valley, for example, draws in thousands of birders and wildlife lovers from around the world to explore restored thorn forests we have helped to replant on these refuges.

3. Create Tree. If you live in a leafy neighborhood or a more rural community, you can take for granted the small dose of nature that you experience every time you pass under a tree. You can also take for granted trees’ role in cooling recreation areas, like parks and bike paths, and improving air quality in them. But in cities across America, lower income neighborhoods and some communities of color consistently have less tree cover to provide these benefits. That’s why we see our Tree Equity work in cities as advancing nature equity and recreation equity along with public health, climate resilience and other goals.

4. Create More Public Land. American Forests advocates for increased public funding to purchase forestland for public ownership and Purchasing more forestland for public ownership means there are more public forests to enjoy closer to more people. Our work includes advocating for the Great American Outdoors Act, legislation to ensure the Land and Water Conservation Fund gets the full $900 million each year it was promised when the fund was originally established by Congress decades ago. This is approximately double the actual funding levels Congress has provided in recent years. We are also advocating for states and local governments to increase their investment in public land acquisition. Success in these public policy efforts will lead to more public forestland for people to enjoy.

Thank you for making it possible for American Forests to expand and improve forest-based recreation opportunities across the nation. Hopefully, this column has you primed for your next adventure in the woods!

For more news and updates from Jad, follow him on Twitter @JadDaley.

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Humanim deconstructs abandoned homes and recovers material for further processing or reuse by architects, furniture makers, artisans and builders. Photo Credit: Vibrant Cities Lab

LARGE TREE BRANCHES and used timber piled up at Baltimore’s 5-acre forestry waste station called Camp Small.

Many of the branches were from trees in Baltimore damaged during storms. Or, they had been cut from trees to make room for new construction. Nearly 78,000 tons of this type of wood was brought to Camp Small by city crews every year just to be thrown out.

But that was a few years ago. Now, Baltimore, and close to a dozen cities across the country, are reusing this reclaimed wood instead of throwing it out. They are repurposing it in new construction, residential repairs and remodeling, packaging and shipping, and to make furniture, railroad ties, fencing and other products.

Many are following the guidance on why and how to do so that is captured in the new Urban Wood Reuse Action Guide on the Vibrant Cities Lab website. The guide, derived from a workbook written by the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station in Baltimore, offers step-by-step instructions on building a wood reuse economy. Topics in it range from how to form strategic partnerships to identifying methods and tools to count, salvage, sort and produce wood products. It also offers financial strategies to raise capital and increase cash flow. And, it suggests tools for evaluating social, economic and environmental impact.

American Forests incorporated the guide into Vibrant Cities Lab because of the many economic upsides to reusing wood. Jobs — such as hazardous tree removal, lumber processing and building furniture — are created. Cities save money because they don’t have to pay for wood waste to be thrown away, energy costs are reduced and fewer social programs are needed (due to the uptick in jobs created by this new economy). Cities also make money through new revenue streams from offering city-harvested wood products.

There are also environmental benefits of this practice, such as sequestering thousands of tons of carbon in the products created with reused wood.

Urban wood reuse operations can be used as a tool for human empowerment, creating a positive feedback loop in cities and helping those most in need of careers by increasing the pool of trained green-collar workers. For example, Humanim, a Baltimore-based nonprofit, trains and pays hundreds of people who would normally be left out of the workforce. One such individual transitioned from being unemployed to being a homeowner sending his child to college because of this urban wood economy.

“American Forests believes a healthy urban forest should be managed like a traditional forest, and that includes turning wood into products after their life cycle as a city tree comes to an end,” says Ian Leahy, vice president of urban forestry at American Forests.

Reclaimed wood from trees in cities could comprise nearly 30 percent of the annual hardwood consumption in the United States. There’s a lot of wood from which to choose. Approximately 17 percent of municipal waste nationwide is from some form of wood. And remarkably, a little more than a decade ago, the amount of urban tree and woody yard waste generated nationally exceeded the volume of timber harvested from U.S. national forests.

“When recovered wood, like building materials, old furniture or even storm debris are treated as waste, there is a missed opportunity to reap the full benefits of those material resources,” says Leahy.

To download the Urban Wood Reuse Guide, go to vibrantcitieslab.com.

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THE DISASTROUS KING FIRE ravaged huge tracts of California’s Eldorado National Forest, leaving a landscape of smoldering stumps. The month-long blaze in 2014 incinerated an estimated 100,000 acres, an area as large as Atlanta. That grim toll is a footnote to a decade of devastation in the state: Since 2010, more than 162 million California trees, across 10.5 million acres, have died.

Like many fires in recent years, the King burned hotter and longer due to dry conditions and excess fuel on the ground. It killed all or most of the adult trees in its path. In response, American Forests doubled down on its commitment to California, pledging to work with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to restore 10,000 acres of the most severely burned areas in the next 10 years. In 2019, Intel, the multinational technology company headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley, became a partner in this effort, providing capacity-building and financial support to help revive the forest.

“At Intel, we recognize the importance of our impact on the planet, and we saw an opportunity to help reforest a fire scar located near our headquarters,” says Fawn Bergen, global water stewardship manager at Intel. “This partnership with American Forests not only allows us to support reforestation efforts but to also dive into more complex issues around forest health and changing conditions, like climate change.”

Intel’s commitment helped American Forests secure an additional grant from the Bella Vista Foundation, which boosted resources for restoration, including securing a Sierra Corps Fellow to dive into complex climate questions. Brittany Dyer, California state director for American Forests, notes that the resources Intel provided will have a major impact for both the forest’s long-term health and ongoing benefits to Californians.

“Fire scars can serve as a blank canvas,” Dyer says. “They give us an opportunity to ‘paint’ — to get creative and develop climate-smart forests that meet today’s challenges.”

One of the ways to do this is through climate-smart reforestation.

Gary Cline, who manages the USFS’ local tree nursery, says that successful regeneration can take centuries, but planting seedlings speeds things up, saying “It’s probably shaving a hundred years off the process.”

As part of this project, Intel has demonstrated its commitment to long-term forest health by agreeing to provide employee volunteers to help with a technique called “release” — where competing vegetation is removed from the seedling site, promoting seedling success.

“Our work on the fire scar allows us to intentionally create the best forest conditions possible,” Dyer says.

After the King Fire, American Forests set out to restore thousands of damaged acres — and this partnership with Intel is a key part of the equation. The effort is especially critical for the health of the American River, a major source of drinking water for many Californians, because tree root systems prevent landslides, filter rainwater and keep sediment out of sensitive streams.

“One way or another, whether through active management or neglect, we are all creating — or ‘painting’ — the landscapes of tomorrow,” Dyer says. “Working with public and private entities, such as the USFS and Intel, to help create tomorrow’s masterpiece is our responsibility.”

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THIRTEEN YEARS AGO, the idea that healthy forests are one of the best solutions to climate change was barely on anybody’s radar.

It was top of mind, though, for the relatively small cadre of people advocating independently for the creation of a federal program — what was referred to as “cap and trade” — that would limit the emission of carbon dioxide from industrial activity.

They were not successful. But the experience of fighting for the program made them understand the value of working together, not individually.

That’s when American Forests President and CEO Jad Daley came up with the idea of creating the Forest-Climate Working Group (FCWG). It is the only coalition in the country working to advance state and federal policies that recognize forests, forestry and forest products as a climate change solution. A strength of the coalition is its diverse membership — more than 50 entities representing forest sector businesses, conservation nonprofits, academic institutions, carbon markets, government agencies, state foresters and private landowners.

The role of the coalition is twofold: provide policymakers with innovative, science-based ways to leverage forests as a natural climate solution and serve as a powerful unified voice to support policymakers seeking to make an impact on the climate crisis.

The need for the coalition has never been more important, given that forests in the United States are at a pivotal inflection point. They are simultaneously impacted by climate change (and conversion from forests to other uses, such as development) and an important solution to climate change. We cannot solve climate change without at least sustaining the current contributions of forests. Our chances will improve dramatically if we take action to realize the scientifically-demonstrated potential to nearly double today’s natural carbon capture in forests.

The FCWG has been successful in getting bipartisan policies created and funding allocated so U.S. forests and forest products can reach the full potential they have to slow climate change. But more work is needed. That’s why American Forests has made it a priority to fund, staff and lead the FCWG.

Join the movement. Learn how at www.forestclimateworkinggroup.org.

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WHEN YOU THINK of Timberland, an image of a classic 6-inch rugged work boot is likely to come to mind. But one that is 13-feet tall and dropped in New York City’s Flat Iron Plaza? That’s just what happened last October when the brand popped up in the plaza to support its bold new commitment to plant 50 million trees around the world by 2025.

American Forests is proud to serve as Timberland’s North American partner to help reach this goal. Together, American Forests and Timberland will plant hundreds of thousands of trees throughout the United States and Canada, starting with a special focus on areas of high need. One of them is Paradise, Calif., where the Camp Fire burned nearly 155,000 acres in 2018.

Members of the American Forest staff attended the event in New York to speak directly with consumers about the benefits of trees, their overall impact on our health and climate and how consumers can make small changes that will have a big impact on the environment.

Timberland and American Forests also launched a campaign in Timberland’s stores and on Timberland.com that invites consumers to join the movement. Customers can donate $1 to plant a tree when they check out at any Timberland store. Or, when shopping online at Timberland.com, customers can choose ground shipping, and the company will donate $1 to plant a tree.

To date, funding to plant more than 200,000 additional trees has been committed in the U.S. through the partnership. By the time the trees planted in these forests are 50 years old, the forests will have stored in their roots, stems and trunks the equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions from 14,912 passenger vehicles being driven for an entire year. The trees will also capture, store and filter 70 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water every year.

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ALEX HERR was just 5 years old when she embarked on her first hike and attempted to climb the 4,006-foot Mount Tecumseh in New Hampshire with her mother.

“The snow was deeper than expected, and we had to turn around,” she recalls. Bigger hiking adventures followed. Herr tackled the Camino de Santiago trail in Spain at 10, and the John Muir Trail in California a year later. Now 17, she is nearly finished hiking all 48 of New Hampshire 4,000-plus-foot peaks in every month of the year, a total of 576 summits.

Over the past few years, she’s channeled her enthusiasm for the outdoors into a project she created for fellow Girl Scouts in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Called 13 Before 13, it’s a primer for beginning hikers, with a list of 13 easy-to-difficult walks that pre-teens can complete with their families. Featuring a website, a Facebook page and a patch she designed herself, the initiative earned Herr the Gold Award, Girl Scout’s highest honor.

Girl Scouts approved the list in November 2019, and already several New Hampshire troops are tackling the hikes, and parents of younger children say they plan to make the list a family project.

Herr enthusiastically supports American Forests’ efforts to reforest and protect existing forests.

“Planting trees is so important,” Herr says. “It’s a great response to tragedies, like wildfires, which are so damaging and cause suffering for people and animals. It makes you want to focus on preserving the forests we have left.”

Herr built 13 Before 13 to encourage that conservation ethic and get young people outdoors. The guide highlights some of her favorite hikes, including Bald Mountain in Franconia Notch.

“It’s very small and short but fun, with lots of rock scrambles and pretty views,” Herr says. “And the trees are gorgeous in every season.”

Find the 13 Before 13 guide at www.13before13.com.

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CITY TREES are having their moment — especially on Capitol Hill. Their value in lowering utility costs, keeping people healthy, and so much more is generating bipartisan support for federal legislation that will make cities nationwide greener.

Current federal funding, for example, includes the largest ever allocation for creating comprehensive urban forestry plans, as well as planting and caring for trees in cities. There is $32 million, representing a $2.5 million increase over last year, for the United States Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program.

Complimenting this funding increase is bipartisan legislation to help homeowners plant trees to reduce residential utility costs and flood risks, as well as mitigate other negative impacts associated with climate change. The Residential Energy and Economic Savings (TREES) Act will, if passed, create a federal program that will award grants to utility companies so they can partner with local tree planting organizations to provide free or reduced trees to homeowners. Money also will be available to take care of the trees after they are planted. Healthy trees reduce utility costs — nearly $4.7 billion in electricity and $3.1 billion in heating use nationwide annually — by shading buildings and blocking strong winds. The shade also helps keep people cool. That’s important, given that a 10-fold increase in heat-related deaths is expected in the eastern U.S. by 2050. Last, trees act like a sponge, absorbing water that could otherwise flood buildings.

To learn how you can help make the TREES Act a reality, visit our online Action Center at www.americanforests.org/actioncenter.

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Although the need to maintain and plant more trees is growing across urban landscapes, the forestry workforce is declining. What’s more, there is just one university — Southern University and A&M College in Louisiana — that offers bachelors, masters and doctoral degree programs in urban forestry. Compared to traditional forestry program offerings, there needs to be a stronger presence of urban forestry in academia. In an effort to stimulate interest and grow the field of urban forestry, the University of Connecticut will launch a new Urban Forestry and Arboriculture associate degree program this fall, with support from a local industry group, the Connecticut Tree Protective Association. “This is an opportunity for individuals from urban centers who may not have thought of forestry as an option for them to work in the industry, with opportunities for employment right back in their home communities,” says Jason Vokoun, professor and head of the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. Preparing the next generation of leaders in urban forestry is paramount for our communities and the wildlife we share it with to thrive today and into the future.

After Washington’s Biggest Wildfire, Tree Thinning and Prescribed Burns Prove Their Worth

The Carlton Complex wildfire was, at the time, the biggest “megafire” in Washington State history, ultimately burning more than 250,000 acres in 2014. Despite the fire’s unprecedented ferocity, not all forests were equally hard-hit. The first major study of the Carlton’s aftermath was recently published in the February 2020 edition of Ecological Applications. The study revealed that more trees survived in areas where foresters had previously thinned crowded trees and used prescribed burns to clear thick, flammable underbrush. These findings add to the growing body of evidence that fuel reduction strategies can help forests withstand the western United States’ increasingly extreme wildfires.

Colorado’s Mountain Forests Are Bouncing Back from Bark Beetles

High-elevation forests in Colorado are rebounding from more than a decade of severe, overlapping bark beetle outbreaks, according to a recent study in the journal Ecology. Nearly 90 percent of the stands researchers surveyed were on their way to recovery, with the most species-diverse areas showing the highest resilience. However, with the good news, the study’s authors added a dose of reality: With hungry deer and elk slowing saplings’ growth, full recovery from the beetle epidemic isn’t expected for decades.

Reminders Help Increase Community Engagement in Urban Forestry Initiatives

Residents’ participation in urban forestry projects and programs is essential to their success. Since 2012, TreePhilly has hosted tree giveaway events for city residents who registered to receive a free tree, but many residents did not show up to get their tree. A recent study tested whether phone call reminders would help close the “intention-action” gap for the TreePhilly program. Of the 251 people who registered to attend, 125 received phone call reminders. Reminder phone calls increased attendance by 16 percent. That’s significant, given the program’s low attendance record over the past eight years. Researchers are exploring whether text reminders might be even more effective. One of the study authors, Dexter Locke, suggested at the Sustainable Urban Forests Coalition’s 2020 annual meeting that forestry programs in other cities could benefit from the lessons learned in this intervention, encouraging the exploration of similar or different interventions to enhance community participation in urban forestry.

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