Conservation Grants Help Restore Chesapeake Bay and Educate Citizens

American Forests
Tuesday, 2 May 2000

The planting of 5,000 trees along the Monocacy River Basin in Frederick County, Maryland is one of seven projects funded by grants to public and private sector organizations through Chesapeake ReLeaf, a project of American Forests (americanforests.org) and the US Forest Service in cooperation with state foresters. In addition to planting trees that filter our air and water, provide habitat for wildlife, and sequester climate-changing carbon dioxide, the project will help fund local education and outreach assistance to landowners about the importance of riparian buffer conservation and restoration and provide tools for managing suburban forests in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

In all, more than $84,000 was awarded to dozens of groups involved with the projects. Chesapeake ReLeaf provides funds to public and private organizations to plant trees in restoration projects to actions to protect existing forests and to manage those forests in order to maintain forest health.

Tree-plantings and educational programs, funded through Chesapeake ReLeaf, will occur in the following Maryland communities: Bel Air; Baltimore (2 projects); Edgewater; and Frederick. Blacksburg and Mechanicsville, both located in Virginia, will also benefit from Chesapeake ReLeaf.

"Trees serve as important buffers for the Chesapeake Bay and its entire watershed," said U.S. Senator Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD) in a statement announcing the grants. "As development pressures increase throughout the Bay's watershed, these plantings offer opportunities to protect not only our water, but also the wildlife residing in forested areas. And the educational programs associated with these funds encourage others to get involved in these conservation efforts."

Forest loss and fragmentation are occurring in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and are affecting water quality, wildlife habitat, and the beauty of communities in the region. The US Forest Service provides the financial support for Chesapeake ReLeaf as an important way to foster local forest restoration, protection and management. It is an investment for change and long-term stewardship. Chesapeake ReLeaf projects are catalysts for locally led conservation activity and bring groups, citizens and landowners together to produce on-the-ground results.

Chesapeake ReLeaf is conducted in part by American Forests' Global ReLeaf Center, which plants trees in areas damaged by human or natural causes that might otherwise not be restored. Global ReLeaf 2000 is an education and action campaign that helps individuals, organizations, agencies, and corporations improve the local and global environment by planting and caring for trees. The goal of Global ReLeaf 2000 is to plant 20 million trees for the new millennium and, so far, more than 17 million trees have been planted including more than 1 million in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

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