Treesfortigers.org lets wildlife lovers restore rare snow tiger habitat

American Forests
Wednesday, 14 March 2001

It's a long way from the Russian Far East forests where Siberian tigers still roam to the Washington, DC Web server of American Forests. But the Internet and a new Web site, treesfortigers.org, have forged a partnership with Russian scientists and sympathetic Americans to fill a critical gap in plans to save the "snow tiger" from extinction.

Trees for Tigers is the newest Global ReLeaf environmental restoration campaign from American Forests, the nation's oldest nonprofit conservation group. It is the organization's first wholly Internet-based campaign with its own Web site and is designed to make it easy for people around the world to: 1) learn about endangered Siberian tigers, 2) easily share that information with friends, and 3) take direct action for tigers by planting trees online to restore key forest habitat.

"We're harnessing the Internet to aid the cause to save one of Earth's most magnificent creatures," said Deborah Gangloff, executive director of American Forests (americanforests.org). "Our goal is to generate support from individuals to plant 200,000 trees this spring to restore tiger habitat critical to the long term survival of the largest of all wild tigers."

Treesfortigers.org explains why Russia's Siberian tiger population has declined by 95 percent over the past century and how only about 350 adult individuals remain in the wild. Poaching and habitat loss due to logging and fire are among the factors contributing to the tiger's demise. Planting trees to improve and expand tiger habitat and to link isolated populations is something no other conservation group is doing and for which American Forests is especially qualified.

For every dollar donated via treesfortigers.org, one native Korean pine tree is planted in the tiger's Russian Far East forest habitat. Korean pine trees produce nuts that are critically important sources of food for wild boar and red deer; both prey for the Siberian (or Amur) tiger. In addition to planting trees, visitors to the site can learn about tiger behavior, the predator-prey relationship, get details about the planting projects and partners, e-mail a colorful postcard to a friend, and receive a T-shirt for planting 35 trees.

American Forests used a grant to plant its first 300,000 Korean pines in four locations in the Primorski Krai region last spring in cooperation with the Pacific Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Federal Forest Service's Primorski Krai Department of Forestry. In order to reach out to a larger public and sponsors on the Internet.

The Trees for Tigers campaign is part of American Forests' Global ReLeaf program that plants trees in ecosystem restoration projects across America and around the world. The Global ReLeaf network extends through every state and territory in America, as well as 21 countries worldwide. Global ReLeaf 2000 is an education and action campaign to improve the local and global environment by planting and caring for 20 million trees for the new millennium. To date, more than 17 million trees have been planted in more than 500 rural and urban projects.

Every donation made through treesfortigers.org through May 15 will be counted towards American Forests' "A Million Trees for Earth Day," which encourages people everywhere to help plant one million Global ReLeaf trees for Earth Day. Earth Day is April 22.

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