Bringing community to DC. (News from the World of Trees).

What would you do with a week in Washington? For community forest practitioners from around the country, the annual excursion is a chance to hone speaking skills, learn about the federal budget and appropriations processes, and share their unique perspectives with agencies, congressional staff, interest groups, and the media. AMERICAN FORESTS has hosted the annual "Community Forestry Week" in Washington for the past five years with the National Network of Forest Practitioners, Communities Committee of the Seventh American Forest Congress, Pinchot Institute, and Aspen Institute. Each year's briefings and discussions build on the success of previous years, and activities this time around included developing partnerships, supporting land stewardship, and investing resources into restoring land and providing benefits to communities (called a "restoration economy").

To encourage peer learning among the diverse group of practitioners, organizers added a mentoring program. Volunteer mentors received media training and conducted follow-up meetings with DC journalists.

One returning participant called this session the most successful yet, saying "It contributed immensely to community forest practitioners' continuing efforts to engage and partner with other practitioners, with DC officials, with their congressional representatives, and with the media."