THIS IS A MONTH OF LASTS FOR ME  here at American Forests — my last board meeting, my last staff meeting and my last “Offshoots” column. In mid-July, my seven-and-a-half-year tenure as president and CEO of this great organization will come to a close. My leaving is bittersweet, but I am excited about the future of American Forests, which will continue doing vital work at this critical time for the planet — it is the right organization at the right time.

When I arrived here in late 2010, the organization was venerable, but a bit worse for the wear. I was certainly dazzled by the organization’s legacy. Back in the day, American Forests helped launch the conservation movement in America, gave birth to the idea of the U.S. Forest Service and a national forest system, and helped create the Civilian Conservation Corps, to list just three of its many remarkable achievements. Conservation legends, such as Teddy Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot and Aldo Leopold, helped shape the organization, along with tens of thousands of members. But by the end of the first decade of the new millennium, American Forests was struggling to find its place.

I knew when I was hired that I was an unusual choice to be CEO. While I had a personal love of forests and believe strongly that climate change is the most pressing issue of our time, my prior career focused on organizational strategy and communications. I knew little about the technical aspects of forests, had no contacts in the relevant government agencies, nor could I identify more than about 10 tree species by sight. But the board decided that what American Forests most needed was someone who knew how to lead change in a nonprofit and who could help the organization tell its story more effectively. These things I could do.

In reality, my biggest contributions to the organization may have been a willingness to dream big and try new stuff, and the ability to attract people who were smarter than me. Today, American Forests is a very different organization. Our membership has grown threefold, our social media audience has topped 250,000 (from under 2,000) and our financial resources continue to expand. We have a courageous and supportive board, an exceptionally gifted staff and a growing cadre of partners, donors and supporters who believe deeply in the work we are doing together.

But the most important ways that American Forests has changed — and will continue to change — relates to the work we do to care for our forests. Eight years ago, we mostly functioned as a foundation — raising money and selectively awarding it to government agencies and on-the-ground partners to plant trees in forests around the world. Our primary measure of success was the number of trees we had planted.

As our staff has become increasingly sophisticated, our approach to the work has changed and our impact has grown. Our American ReLeaf program still plants millions of trees each year, but these days, we are going deep on some of the most important and threatened landscapes in America. Long-term impact is now our principal metric. We are building wide-ranging restoration partnerships, conducting science-based planning, advancing a policy agenda that supports these efforts, and increasingly viewing our projects as learning laboratories for our other projects and for the greater conservation community.

Our Community ReLeaf program, launched in 2013, has grown into a model outreach effort that balances the large-scale environmental benefits of expanding tree canopy in cities with the need to expand access to trees and greenspace in underserved neighborhoods. Like American ReLeaf, Community ReLeaf is grounded in local partnerships, science-based planning and a supporting public policy agenda.

While these programs provide a foundation for the future, leadership and innovation are revealing the potential for American Forests’ future impact. During the last year, our programs team has led an aggressive strategy for advancing the use of forests as a natural solution to climate change, positioning the organization at the forefront of these efforts nationally.

American Forests is thriving and the work has never been more needed. So why am I leaving? I have always believed that one of the greatest gifts a leader can give an organization is knowing when to move on. American Forests needs a different kind of leader today than it did when I was hired. Our challenges are different, and so a different set of skills and experiences are necessary to take this organization to its next level of success.

That said, I fully intend to stay engaged — as a cheerleader, advocate and donor. Forest conservation is one of the most valuable things we can do for the health of the planet. And while American Forests is doing great work now, I have no doubt that its impact will only increase.

Scott: Thank you for your leadership and inspiration. We have grown and thrived — a bit like the trees that have been planted during your time at American Forests. And like the trees, our strong roots will continue to support us through the many seasons ahead.”
— The Staff at American Forests

The post Offshoots: A Legacy and a Look Forward appeared first on American Forests.

FAI FOEN IS ALWAYS ON THE MOVE. As I spoke with her on the phone, I could hear the sound of city bustle in the background. She brings this energy to her passion for the environment and landscape architecture, a passion she’s cultivated over decades.

Fai, a first-generation Chinese-American, spent her childhood on Detroit’s Westside. Her parents were small-business owners who were raised in rural China. So while they spent most days working inside a hot kitchen, they valued the land and spending time outdoors. As a result, Fai missed out on the traditional Michigan experience of spending times “up North” in the woods or on the lake. That said, her parents instilled their appreciation of nature and the outdoors by taking the family to fish or barbecue at the local state park and Metroparks on weekends. But it wasn’t until she went to college that her love for the environment began to fully develop into a career path.

“You can be exposed to the natural environment as a first step,” she says, “but having a mentor or having a community who enjoys outdoor experience makes all the difference to seeing a career path for one’s self.”

Once you realize that path, she adds, you have to take initiative and pursue it; work hard, and be curious and ready to reach out to a lot of people.

But the most important thing Fai learned over the course of building her career is how to take action.

After graduating with a design degree, focusing on human-centered design, she joined the U.S. Peace Corps. While serving in West Africa, where everyday life reflects a connection to the land, she observed how a “pépinière,” or plant nursery, provided economic, environmental and social benefits to a community. Engaging in this deeper relationship between people and the environment inspired her to pursue a career in landscape architecture.

Fai has always been attracted to cities. She likes urban areas because of the diverse people, experiences, activities and opportunities available. Her main interest, though, lies in opportunities for planning and implementing greenspaces.

Urban greenspaces take on a different character than suburban ones. While they can be planned parks, like the Frederick Olmsted-designed Belle Isle in Detroit, they can also be a vacant residential lot, a recently demolished commercial building, or even scrappy easements. In urban areas, where the stress of life is higher and access to maintained park space is limited, every piece of green is that much more valuable. And in a place where the preferred solution for existing greenspace is mowing or landscaping, creative opportunities, like stormwater management or pollinator habitat, are being missed. A creative landscape architect who works with the community needs to be flexible, knowledgeable of plants and maintenance, and imaginative when designing for these sites, especially when there isn’t enough space to plant a tree.

While Fai appreciates forests for their aesthetic and environmental benefits, for her, it’s important to match those benefits with people and their expectations of how greenspace should look and function.

“Nothing will be acceptable if people can’t accept it,” Fai says regarding environmental projects in urban areas. She believes that many people who live in cities don’t have an immediate connection to the land and need to access to information in order to be educated on potential projects. On top of being more informed, a community’s opinion needs to be heard.

To Fai, landscape architecture is about learning how everything works together in a system. It’s about understanding physical site conditions, site use and circulation; communicating with residents, understanding their goals, sharing how site conditions affect the design, and working with the community to plant the best infrastructure possible. And that’s what led to her position as The Greening of Detroit’s interim green infrastructure director, which lets her do just that.

The Greening of Detroit is a nonprofit, volunteer organization that works to revitalize the city’s landscape through education, community tree planting, workforce development and establishing ecological landscapes. Fai learned about the organization during graduate school and, since then, has returned to work in various positions.

She enjoys connecting with people genuinely interested in and concerned about the environment and supporting residents who are working to improve their neighborhoods. Fai considers herself to be a bridge that connects environmental projects to communities, but it can be challenging to work in different neighborhoods. Each one is unique, and sometimes the requests the organization receives can’t be fulfilled due to limits in capacity and resources.

One of her current projects is the Meyers Nursery in Detroit’s Rouge Park. The project’s goals are to plan and implement increased tree production, continue workforce training through The Greening’s workforce development program for landscape maintenance and tree trimming, and improve community outreach to increase volunteer participation in tree plantings and other nursery activities.

However, the big challenge is working through the costs and implementation of the site installation. The Greening’s ongoing partnerships with the City of Detroit, community groups and other nonprofit organizations are an important part to tackling these challenges.

In the future, Fai hopes to connect more with individual communities across the city. She wants to help The Greening of Detroit continue its work of sharing environmental education and connecting people to opportunities through community tree plantings, workforce training and nature programs. She plans to work with reforestation partners to strategically plant more trees to build up Detroit’s tree canopy.

For greenspaces, she envisions designing and educating around low-maintenance landscapes that incorporate native plants. Building on traditional and contemporary aesthetics, while reflecting the need to understand the whole urban forest, from plants to shrubs to trees. In this, Fai hopes to help more people make informed decisions on how to manage land with the resources available to them and support communities in their interest to revitalize greenspace in their neighborhoods.

“It’s a passion for me,” she says. “I love working with others to create a project, and I love this city.”

Fai’s interests, and her desire to serve the community she came from and connect with residents, are what keep her moving forward and pushing for change in Detroit’s greenspaces. And once you meet her, you find yourself wanting to do the same, right beside her.

Leah Rambadt was American Forests’ spring editorial intern and is a graduate student in American University’s M.F.A. in Creative Writing program.

The post Earthkeepers: Moving Forward: Reimagining Greenspace appeared first on American Forests.

THERE ARE A FEW PREREQUISITES necessary to truly understand the needs of a city, especially one growing as quickly as Houston.

Resources, relationships, technical expertise and a passion for urban forests are all factors that American Forests considers when selecting priority areas for our Community ReLeaf program. Luckily, we found each of these qualities in the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC), the Houston Parks and Recreation Department (HPARD) and Trees for Houston.

Since 2015, we’ve worked with these groups to make significant progress in reforesting the Houston metropolitan area. After extensive research and engaging with local stakeholders, we supported H-GAC in founding the Houston Area Urban Forests Project. Focusing on the core counties of Harris, Montgomery and Fort Bend, H-GAC has successfully gathered a list of shovel ready, priority projects essential in meeting the needs of Houston’s urban forest.

But last August, Houston was ravaged by Hurricane Harvey. With $125 billion in damages and one-third of the city underwater, 13 million people were affected by the natural disaster. Despite these losses, we’ve been able to work with our local partners to help the tree canopy recover. Thanks to HPARD, we’ve funded the planting of more than 500 trees, with more to come.

American Forests has also collaborated with Trees for Houston, a local powerhouse for urban forestry. This small team has accomplished great things: With an array of nurseries in the Houston area, they planted 21,143 trees in the 2016-2017 season. This year, some of these trees will go to Buffalo Bayou Park, a beloved, 160-acre Houston landmark that suffered severe hurricane damage and, as a result, left many areas of the park closed to the public for extended periods of time.

Our staff at American Forests, and those involved with our partners, know that trees bring people together. In November 2017, we held a tree planting at Burnett-Bayland Park with Bank of America and HPARD. Much of the city was still dealing with hurricane damage — silt buildups, flooding and debris were the main issues. Together, we planted 200 trees and turned a wide-open park into a home for bald cypress, cedar elm and bur oak.

Houston City Council Member Mike Laster was one of the many people who showed up that day to plant trees. His opening remarks captivated the crowd as he reminded them that planting just one tree can have lasting effects, both for the environment and the community. Thanks to the trees we planted, there will be a place for birds to roost, children to seek shade from the sun, and families to come together and enjoy the ecological benefits of trees.

With sprawling metropolitan areas surrounded by marshes along the coast and forests to the north, Houston is not a simple landscape. But the vision for a cleaner, greener city starts with one simple step: Planting more trees. Through continued collaboration with each of our partners in Houston, we’re able to not only plant more trees, but also bring the community together and educate residents on the many benefits urban forests provide.

Emily Barber writes from Washington, D.C. and is American Forests’ marketing manager.

The post Project Showcase: Partnering for Success in Houston appeared first on American Forests.

AMERICAN FORESTS IS working with The Longleaf Alliance through the American ReLeaf program to restore the gopher tortoise population and longleaf pine ecosystem across the Southeastern U.S. In September 2017, the Gopher Tortoise Restoration Initiative released 15 gopher tortoises at South Carolina’s Aiken Gopher Tortoise Heritage Preserve. An additional 60 juvenile tortoises, whose eggs were collected from the preserve in summer 2017, and hatched later that fall, will be released in June 2018.

“The gopher tortoise is a very rare species in South Carolina,” says Robert Abernethy, president of The Longleaf Alliance. “With this project, we have the opportunity in just a few years to show that headstarting works and restore viable populations of gopher tortoises to several state and private lands.”

The preserve is a target area because it’s inhabited by the northernmost population of gopher tortoises in the country. The Initiative wants to ensure this population becomes genetically secure by increasing the number of adults — currently estimated to be 160-180 adult tortoises — to 250 individuals.

The eggs were hatched in incubators at a constant humidity and temperature in the University of Georgia’s Ecology Lab at the Savannah River site in Aiken, S.C.

The hatchlings were then raised at the Lab and the Riverbank Zoo, in a converted greenhouse that is climate-controlled to keep the tortoises active throughout the winter. They are fed a diet of zoo food and a collection of vegetables. By June 2018, these tortoises will be the same size as a three- to four-year-old tortoise raised in the wild, which ensures they are able
to protect themselves from predators.

Their habitat, the longleaf pine ecosystem, also needs to be prepared. In the years before the release, longleaf pine forests are thinned with fire to allow low-ground vegetation, such as grasses and wildflowers, to grow, creating an open pine savannah.

At the release site, small, angled holes are dug to resemble burrows. The tortoises are placed at the mouth of the hole, where instinct takes over and they continue to dig. When they leave, their empty burrows provide habitats for other wildlife.

The Initiative has met its goals of collecting eggs, hatching and raising them in captivity. The long-range goals, restoring the gopher tortoise population and the longleaf ecosystem, are still a work in progress — one that American Forests is helping come to fruition.

“Funding from American Forests and the support and enthusiasm for the gopher tortoise and the forest it inhabits from the staff have, quite simply, made this project possible,” Abernethy says, “and that continued support has allowed this project to grow, develop and expand.”

This year, the Initiative will collect eggs from a second property and work on restoring the population there, with releases planned for 2019. They’ll continue to expand to other properties, with suitable habitats and sandy soils, and establish more longleaf pine ecosystems. They hope to gather more eggs to hatch, raise and release in areas without gopher tortoises.

“Restoration of rare, threatened and endangered species ensures not just the survival of the species but our own survival,” Abernethy says. “By managing and conserving forests and trees for gopher tortoises, we also conserve forests that provide lumber for homes and pulp for paper, green space for recreation and clean air and clean water.”

Leah Rambadt was American Forests’ spring editorial intern and is a graduate student in American University’s M.F.A. in Creative Writing program.

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TREES ARE AN IMPORTANT inspiration for Thymes, a bath, body and home fragrance company committed to artisan craftsmanship. Their mission is to deepen connections through fragrance and create scents that enrich daily life. And, they know that the enriching power of their largest collection, Frasier Fir, starts at its source: trees.

“Frasier Fir’s just-cut-fresh, forest scent instantly captures hearts and conjures joyous memories, especially around the holidays,” explains Amy Banks, brand director at Thymes. “The feelings that it evokes have played a big part of it becoming a holiday tradition and staple in so many homes across America, and really, all over the world.”

Two years ago, Thymes launched Frasier Fir’s Northwoods and Statement collections, making a total of five collections featuring different looks, within this one beloved fragrance. In the spirit of giving back and helping to restore forests across America, Thymes partnered with American Forests to plant a tree for every product sold from the Northwoods and Statement collections through its Plant One Tree Program. Since this program launched, Thymes has planted more than 140,000 trees in Minnesota’s Chippewa National Forest.

“We were excited to be able to plant trees in our very own backyard in northern Minnesota,” says Maggie Sokoloski, assistant brand manager at Thymes.

The Plant One Tree program is designed to not only honor the Fraser fir tree through plantings and supporting organizations like American Forests, but to also promote a feeling of goodwill for everyone involved, from Thymes employees to the customers.

“The program itself draws a heartfelt connection,” Maggie says regarding the positive customer feedback to the program. “They can feel good about buying a candle that helps make a difference.”

The post Partner Profile: Thymes appeared first on American Forests.

They were compelled to help do something about it, so they turned to environmental conservation to understand and help combat these changes. Several years ago, Lloyd came across an issue of American Forests magazine. He and Patricia were impressed by American Forests’ conservation programs and tree-planting approach, so they decided to extend their support.

“You pick up knowledge as you go along,” Lloyd says, regarding conservation. “You don’t need to be a professional to understand and learn what’s going on.”

Lloyd and Patricia are humble about their lack of a science background, and they appreciate how reading American Forests has informed them of various environmental issues. One story that highlighted American Forests’ work in Houston led the Fetterlys to investigate reforestation methods being applied in their own backyard in Seattle.

In fact, reforestation is Lloyd and Patricia’s primary conservation concern. They are aware that healthy forests are important to counteracting the carbon crisis — an outcome of both the coal industry and the heavy economic reliance on wood products in areas like the Pacific Coast. Forests are a natural defense against carbon emissions, as trees are able to lock carbon in from the environment.

The Fetterlys have been committed members of American Forests’ Sequoia Circle since 2014 and are also heavily involved with other local conservation organizations in Tacoma, Wash. For instance, Lloyd has planted hundreds of trees with different groups, and volunteering has become a passion of his.

One challenge Lloyd remarks on is getting people to make time to learn about conservation. He’d like to see younger people get more involved and hopes greater opportunities arise for young adults to participate in conservation efforts. As he suggests, it’s important to be community-minded, especially when working toward protecting our forests.

Lloyd and Patricia know it may not be possible for everyone to dedicate time or energy to conservation efforts, but “supporting American Forests is the easiest thing you can do,” they say.

The post Donor Profile: Lloyd and Patricia Fetterly appeared first on American Forests.

Eliza Kretzmann, Manager of Urban Forest Programs

I FIRST VISITED DETROIT four years ago and was fascinated with the city’s juxtapositions: Colorful farm-to-table restaurants sprouting next to burned-out buildings, a beautiful river walkway with broken bricks like missing teeth, and grand neighborhoods slowly succumbing to nature.

Now, community gardens rise between canyons of brick, colorful public spaces overflow with people, and murals bloom across concrete. Yet, many neighborhoods remain in decline, with community leaders seeking innovative solutions.

With funding, volunteer and technical support from Bank of America and the U.S. Forest Service, American Forests has been building a robust local coalition that includes city agencies, local nonprofits, universities and businesses. This team has developed urban forestry priorities for citywide planning efforts to guide long-term reforestation efforts. We have planted trees and helped develop an inexpensive model for revitalizing vacant land through the Osborn Outdoor Education Center, which has been replicated elsewhere in the city.

Our current focus is on creating and supporting urban tree nurseries on underutilized land that can supply trees and create jobs in the city for years to come.

American Forests is providing much-needed capacity to a city busy reinventing itself.

To learn more about our work in Detroit, check out “The Green Factory.” 

The post From the Field: Detroit appeared first on American Forests.

Eric Sprague, Director of Forest Conservation

RECENTLY, AMERICAN FORESTS STAFF traveled to the Ozarks in Missouri to meet with our friends at Independent Stave Company (ISCO) to discuss our partnership to sustain a critical benefit provided by forests: wood products. Specifically, high-quality white oak that is used to produce whiskey and wine barrels.

We observed how the proportion of oak seedlings found on the forest floor has rapidly declined — a problem not only facing the hardwood forests of Missouri, but those across the entire eastern U.S. The forest composition has changed because of a variety of factors including, most importantly, a lack of natural and low-intensity wildfires.

The next day, we ventured to a state-owned conservation area, where a master logger was taking down trees damaged by a tornado. We witnessed a white oak come down, and one of my colleagues said, “The sawdust smells like bourbon!” The logger replied, “No, bourbon tastes like oak!”

ISCO then hosted us for tours of their sawmill and cooperage, which were amazing sights to see. The company values sustainability and uses every inch of the logs they take. The staff is passionate about what they do and the barrels they produce are top-notch.

The shortage of small oaks across the eastern U.S. portends a large reduction in high-quality oak in the future. Given that it takes decades for oaks to mature, American Forests, Independent Stave Company and other partners are restoring this important resource.

The post From the Field: Salem, Mo. appeared first on American Forests.

THANKS TO FOREST ADVOCATES, like you, the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry (U&CF) program received an increase of federal funding for the FY2018. However, once again the Trump Administration’s budget proposed eliminating this important program. American Forests advocated for the creation of this program in 1990, but has been working for trees in our cities and towns for more than a century. We need your help informing Congress about the importance of urban forests, and this program specifically.

Here’s why:

• The 138 million acres of urban and community forest lands in the U.S. affect more than 80 percent of the nation’s population.
• These forests are vital to creating and maintaining healthy, livable communities of all sizes by providing scientifically proven social, economic and environmental benefits to the people that live there.
• The collective value and benefits of community trees is more than 10 billion dollars nationwide.

The U&CF program directly assists state governments, nonprofit organizations and partners that manage and serve our nation’s forests. The program helps cities and towns across the nation prepare for storms and other disasters, contain threats from invasive pests and diseases, and improve tree infrastructure and forest cover. Properly managed community forests offer towns and municipalities a cost-effective way to maximize the economic, social and ecological benefits of their tree resources and avoid storm and disaster costs through preparedness and training.

In FY2017, U&CF reached more than 7,800 communities and more than 200 million Americans. U&CF is a high-impact program and a smart investment as federal support is often leveraged 2:1, or significantly more, by states and partner organizations. U&CF engages citizens in cities and towns, brings together diverse partners, public and private resources, and demonstrates that federal investment can have a huge and lasting impact on communities of all sizes.

Funding for this program must not be eliminated because the social, economic and environmental benefits to communities would be lost. Please help ensure FY 2019 levels are in line with the importance of this program by contacting your Congressional members. Let your voice be heard by visiting the American Forests Action Center at americanforests.org/TakeAction.

In March, Congress passed the fiscal year 2018 omnibus appropriations bill. Included in this bill was a comprehensive wildfire suppression funding solution that American Forests and many others have been working on for years. Thank you to our forest advocates who sent thousands of letters to their Congressional members over the years as it truly made a difference. Letting your elected officials know that you care about these issues is so important.

Rebecca Turner writes from Washington, D.C., and is American Forests’ senior director of programs and policy.

The post Action Center: Urban and Community Forestry Funding appeared first on American Forests.

By Krista Schlyer; All photos by Krista Schlyer

A WINTER FOG BLANKETS THE LOWER RIO GRANDE VALLEY, OBSCURING all but the heights of the forest canopy where the outstretched arms of ebony, ash and hackberry reach through a cottony mist. From atop the hawk tower at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas, no roads, no farm fields, no buildings are visible, only a deep lush forest loud with the dawn chorus of kiskadee, green jay and oriole that has rung out on this land for ages beyond count. Enveloped in this misty morning, one can imagine another time, not so long ago, when jaguars stalked this forest by night, jaguarundis hunted its deepest shadows by day, and ocelots poured their mercurial bodies through small gaps in the dense thornscrub on the heels of cottontail and dove.

But as the sun ascends, the fog dissipates revealing the reality that has over the past centuries displaced jaguar, ocelot, bird and butterfly, ebony and ash until almost none were left: roads, utility lines, bare fields, buildings and border barriers.

“We’re down to less than 5 percent of the native Tamaulipan thornscrub habitat and less than 3 percent of riparian forests,” says Robert Jess, who directs the South Texas Refuge Complex for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Most of the habitat originally fell to farming. In 1880, there were 2,000 acres of cultivated land in Hidalgo County; by 1924, that figure had grown to more than 125,000 acres. By 1943, the year the Santa Ana refuge was established, it had become an island of remnant habitat in a sea of cropland. Once-common species, like plain chachalaca and hooded orioles, had almost disappeared. Ocelots and jaguarundis were endangered, and the last jaguar in Texas was killed in 1948.

But in 1979, a seed of an idea was planted in the form of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, explains former refuge complex manager Ken Merritt. More than a refuge, the project was a grand endeavor to restore and stitch together disjointed pieces of natural land into a whole cloth of habitat that could save an expansive community of imperiled species.

“The refuge aimed to preserve the habitat,” says Merritt, “but also to create a travel corridor for a variety of species, especially the ocelot.”

In this way the refuge could serve as connective tissue between isolated tracts of land owned by private citizens, nonprofit organizations and governments along the last 275 miles of the Rio Grande River. Two keystone refuges would anchor the corridor project: the Laguna Atascosa — a critical stronghold for endangered ocelots on the Gulf Coast — and Santa Ana, some 60 miles west on the Rio Grande, which protects the largest remaining riparian thorn forest in the United States.

This ambitious endeavor has included an investment of millions of dollars and many thousands of volunteer hours — the blood, sweat and tears of a community that simply would not let this landscape die. They knew there was no place else like it in the world.

THE MOST BIOLOGICALLY DIVERSE HABITAT IN THE U.S.

The richness of this river delta derives from its geographic location. The Rio Grande lies within a natural borderlands, where the boundaries of four significant climate zones overlap. The north, south, east and west of North America’s natural world meet here, blending tropical species, like ocelots and green jays, with their more temperate counterparts like bobcats and white-throated sparrows. Likewise, precipitation zones that define the eastern and western portions of North America overlap here, so cactus grow as comfortably as Spanish moss. Many unique species are adapted to these four extremes and coexist here at the edge of their respective ranges.

The Valley attracts scores of migrating species, especially birds and butterflies, as they attempt to make their grueling seasonal journeys. The Gulf of Mexico and Chihuahuan Desert flank the Valley to the east and west, effectively creating a migratory funnel for birds trying to avoid the dangers of flight over the Gulf or the desert. Of the more than 320 North American migrating bird species, some 80 percent can be found resting and refueling within the Valley. More than half of North America’s butterfly species — some 330 — can also be seen floating about South Texas.

“Many bird species means many seed distributors,” explains refuge restoration ecologist Kim Wahl. “Many butterfly species and bee species mean many pollinators. It all works together to create an incredibly diverse place.”

South Texas claims 1,200 documented plant species, organized into 38 unique plant societies — from the rich wetlands and lowland river forests shaded by black willow, Texas ebony and Mexican ash, to thick brushlands, grasslands and coastal dunes. These plant communities have for millennia sustained a complex wildlife community, including indigo snakes, Texas tortoises, aplomado falcons and malachite butterflies.

THE ODDS STACKED AGAINST THE VALLEY

A significant challenge arose, as Wahl explains: “How do we go from an open field to something we can call habitat?”

The initial plantings in the 1980s and 1990s consisted of broadcasting seeds for fast-growing plants like Texas ebony, huisache and tepeguaje. The success rate was low due to dry, bare soils, but much was learned in the process.

The extreme heat, drought and winds of a South Texas summer would have been buffered by a sheltering forest in a natural setting, but on farmland, tender seedlings are at the mercy of the elements. It became clear that given the damage the land had endured, plants needed a head start. Especially when the ecological integrity of the land had been so deeply wounded.

More care for individual plants was essential, but this would require more time and more financial resources in an era when budgets for national wildlife refuges are consistently declining. Budget shortfalls meant optimal planting methods could only be used as key resources were available, Wahl explains.

In 1997, American Forests joined the effort in South Texas to help provide those key resources and keep restoration on track. Since then, the organization has provided more than $1 million to support the planting of more than 2 million seedlings.

THE DAWNING OF A NEW HORIZON

“American Forests covers the cost of many of the plants, so we are able to spend more money on how we plant,” Wahl says. “We can go from just putting plants in the ground to creating habitat.”

With more thoughtful planting methodologies, seedling survival and diversity has increased, resulting in more natural plant communities in a shorter period of time. It’s been a community effort. Private nurseries grow three-quarters of the seedlings, assisting the refuge and also fueling a micro-economy around restoration. And, every October for 20 years, the refuge has held the Rio Reforestation event, enlisting thousands of volunteers to plant seedlings and learn about the value of returning native habitat to the landscape.

The benefits of restoration are expansive, well beyond the direct economic impacts.

“Forest restoration is also a great investment for people,” notes Eric Sprague, vice president of forest restoration at American Forests. “You get water benefits for a drought-prone area and climate benefits that come from trees.”

It would be difficult to overestimate the value of this work for the future of wild species. At least 24 globally imperiled plant species are native to the Valley. They include ashy dogweed, South Texas ambrosia, star cactus and Walker’s manioc. Many of these were widespread in the Valley historically, but now their global range is restricted to a few small patches in South Texas. Some 85 species of animals are threatened with extinction or already lost, like the Smyth’s tiger beetle and Eskimo curlew. Once-common hooded and Audubon’s orioles have disappeared from large portions of the Valley, and Altamira orioles have been in decline for decades along with elf owls, red-billed pigeons and varied buntings.

Ocelots are now critically endangered, plagued by habitat loss and fragmentation that isolates their populations. Only about 50 ocelots are left in the wild in the United States, and without significant effort, this small cat is likely to be extinct in the country within 50 years. These cats need the densest thorn forest, a habitat type that now comprises less than 1 percent of the Valley. With every new fragmentation they are forced into smaller and smaller islands of habitat, where a shallow gene pool and limited prey threaten their future. But travel in search of survival can be treacherous. In 2015, five ocelots — about 10 percent of the known population — were killed on roads.

THE PROBLEM WITH BUILDING BARRIERS

Historically, the U.S. population of ocelots was linked to those in Mexico. When they needed to find new territory or mates, they could swim across the Rio Grande. But, as the border between these two nations hardens, animals of all ilk are being blocked from essential migrations.

In 2017, President Donald J. Trump announced plans to expand construction of a border wall in the Valley. Proposed wall construction, and other border enforcement activities, compound upon a host of ongoing threats to restoration of Valley ecosystems, making the ultimate success of the conservation effort far from certain.

“Most, if not all, of the native forests and subtropical brushlands in the expansive 2.7 million acres of the Lower Rio Grande Valley are threatened by ongoing human activities,” according to a 2015 U.S. Geological Survey report.

Invasive species, like bufflegrass, giant reed and salt cedar, crowd out native species and thwart restoration of native plant communities. Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme drought and flooding, and causing sea level to rise while eroding coastal habitats. Dams on the Rio Grande have taken a toll on the health of the river landscape by depriving forests of essential nutrients and water. Conversely, levees have caused the delta to be inundated for extended periods of time, killing mature trees. Added to these threats are ongoing development pressures, such as Space X, proposed liquefied natural gas facilities and a rapidly expanding wind energy industry.

But the greatest of all these threats is likely to be the ever-expanding human population and resulting urbanization. Since 1940, population in the Valley has increased by more than 1 million people, making it one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation. If current trends continue, the population will double by 2050 to more than 3 million people. More people means more roads, more vehicles, more pressure to urbanize forest and grassland.

“If you could sum all the threats up in one word,” Jess says, “it would be fragmentation.”

Endangered species are already reeling from a highly fragmented landscape. Their survival requires an expansion of habitat, and development pressures are making that increasingly difficult.

“When you deal with endangered species, there is a sense of urgency,” Sprague says. “You want to see results fast.”

But restoration takes time — and there’s the rub.

“It’s now a race between expanding development and protecting the habitat and migration corridors that connect important blocks of thornscrub,” Sprague says. “We’re trying to make these connections while we still have a chance.”

Back on the hawk tower in Santa Ana, the rising light shines upon spider webs that glisten in the forest canopy. The departing fog has revealed the hard reality of this nearly vanished ecosystem, but something else has become equally apparent: The dawn chorus continues, hawks fly past, kiskadees pluck ripe orange hackberries, chachalacas rustle clumsily on branches far too thin for their chicken-like forms and a beautiful red-banded pixie butterfly stops to rest on a nearby leaf. Their presence here is evidence of an ardent effort carried out over the past four decades to save this endangered landscape. Each is a piece of the naturally lush fabric of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and a poignant reminder of the preciousness of what’s at stake here. This habitat may have diminished to near nothing, but to those that remain, it is everything.

Krista Schlyer has been documenting the ecosystems of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands since 2007. Learn more about her work at kristaschlyer.com.

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