Help Plant One Million Trees for Earth Day

American Forests
Wednesday, 14 February 2001

An Earth Day campaign to plant 1 million trees in environmental restoration projects in the United States and around the world will soon be announced by American Forests, the world leader in planting trees for the environment. American Forests, now in its 125th year, will invite people to join this year's Earth Day tree-planting campaign by taking action in their communities and through www.americanforests.org where trees can be planted in 50 Global ReLeaf projects in 26 states and 4 countries. Earth Day is April 22.

Trees donated online, by phone, and through special promotions with companies such as Eddie Bauer will be planted in cooperation with hundreds of local and state partners. Sites targeted for planting include: a California desert riparian area; degraded slopes that pollute salmon streams in the Northwest; wildfire scorched lands in the Rockies, the Sierras, and in Florida; Siberian tiger habitat in the Russian Far East; and the denuded slopes of Sarajevo. Every dollar plants a native tree in these projects.

Descriptions of the projects and the following special initiatives can be found at www.americanforests.org:

- Trees for Tigers, which seeks to plant 200,000 trees this year, and eventually millions, in the Russian Far East to improve habitat for the 350 Siberian tigers left in the wild. A special web site, www.treesfortigers.org is dedicated to this campaign. ·

- Wildfire ReLeaf, to plant trees and renew forests in areas scorched by wildfire, especially the extensive fires of 2000 in the Western United States. ·

- Trees for Sarajevo, dedicated to restoring the hillside trees and urban canopy of the host city for the 1984 Winter Olympic Games whose trees were decimated by the recent war. ·

- A Tree for Every Child, a classroom program for teachers and students. ·

- Famous & Historic Trees can be planted at home, school, or in the community.

Personalized tree certificates are available at www.americanforests.org for trees planted as gifts for special occasions, or as memorials for loved ones. Trees can also be planted by phone at 800-545-TREE, or by mail to American Forests, P.O. Box 2000, Washington, DC 20013.

Trees can also be planted through Eddie Bauer's ongoing Add-a-dollar, Plant-a-tree campaign at it stores, online, and through its catalogues. Scores of other companies and organizations are expected to participate with special Global ReLeaf promotions or incentives.

American Forests is an environmental partner of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics (SLOC) and people planting trees for Earth Day can also enroll their trees in The Global Tree Race, a SLOC environmental campaign.

For more information, or to contact American Forests, see their website at: www.americanforests.org