Corporations go green.

AMERICAN FORESTS and Mobil Corporation have joined forces to plant 500,000 trees in Global ReLeaf Forests this year. The effort demonstrates that voluntary private-sector partnerships can achieve environmental improvements.

The international oil and petrochemical company has as one of its goals to help restore forest ecosystems to health, and the Global ReLeaf Forest projects will expand wildlife habitat, protect water resources, prevent soil erosion, and create recreational opportunities. They also will help slow global climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Mobil is taking steps to reduce greenhouse gases by lowering its emissions and sequestering carbon.

Mobil will sponsor plantings in four Global ReLeaf Forests: Blackwater River and Lake George state forests in Florida, Black River State Forest in Wisconsin, and Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest in Virginia. Over their life times the projects will remove an estimated 42,000 tons of atmospheric carbon.

EDDIE BAUER

Specialty retailer Eddie Bauer has passed the million-tree milestone with a goal of planting 2.5 million Global ReLeaf Forest trees by the year 2000. Since 1995 Eddie Bauer customers have supported tree planting by adding a dollar to their purchases. The Redmond, Washington-based company matched the first 75,000 trees planted and encourages associates to dig in through payroll deductions.

The Eddie Bauer Global ReLeaf Tree Project is helping restore forest ecosystems across the United States and in Canada. It is the single largest contributor to the Global ReLeaf 2000 campaign.

"I am confident that by the year 2000 Eddie Bauer, in partnership with AMERICAN FORESTS, will have made a real difference in protecting the environment," says Rick Fersch, Eddie Bauer president and CEO.

CARTRIDGE EXPRESS

Send empty toner and inkjet cartridges to Cartridge Express and have trees planted in Global ReLeaf Forests. Recycling these printer and photocopier supplies triggers the planting of up to five trees, depending on the cartridge.

No purchase is necessary. When you mail in your cartridges Cartridge Express will sponsor the planting of trees in your name. For more information, call 703/573-6343. Cartridge Express is a division of Cartridge Technology Network, Inc.

He Speaks for the Trees

He spoke out on behalf of the Truffula trees. Now one of the most beloved tree advocates is voicing support for Global ReLeaf. He's the Lorax, protagonist of Dr. Seuss's 1971 children's classic. Individuals and school groups who buy a special edition of The Lorax this spring will receive a Lorax puppet and information about AMERICAN FORESTS and becoming a "Lorax Helper."

Contributions by Lorax Helpers will help replant longleaf pines in the Dr. Seuss Lorax Forest, a Global ReLeaf project in Francis Marion National Forest South Carolina. The area is habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker, American chafseed, and other threatened species. Contributors also will receive a "Lorax Helper kit" including crab apple seeds, a certificate of appreciation, and stickers.

Chesapeake Bay ReLeaf

AMERICAN FORESTS' CITY green software will help in the effort to clean up the nation's largest estuary. The Urban Forest Center, which created the software, is helping Maryland with its plan to plant 600 miles of streamside forests in the Chesapeake Bay watershed by the year 2010.That's part of a larger effort by the Chesapeake Bay Program to plant 2,010 miles throughout the region. The Bay Program is a partnership of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay Commission, the EPA, and advisory groups.

AMERICAN FORESTS is helping Maryland rank planting locations and quantify environmental and economic benefits and will expand CITYgreen's analysis capacity to include trees' nutrient-reducing benefits. The effort will focus initially on Anne Arundel and Calvert counties on the Bay's western shore. The findings will be presented to landowners recruited to plant trees on their property.

Global ReLeaf Forests in Climate Report

The Global ReLeaf Forests project was profiled as a case study in the federal government's second annual report, Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Voluntary Reporting. AMERICAN FORESTS reported 63 projects - more than anyone else - to the Energy Information Administration. The projects will help slow climate change by collectively removing about 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

AMERICAN FORESTS' approach to global warming was endorsed by the U.N. Climate Change treaty approved in December in Kyoto, Japan. Under the protocol, countries can count the carbon dioxide absorbed by trees in planting projects toward their greenhouse gas reduction goals.

Growing Use of GIS

A national survey by AMERICAN FORESTS shows an 87 percent surge in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) use by cities and counties over the last decade. This GIS groundswell may be key to helping communities quantify and make informed decisions about their natural resources, especially trees.

Done in cooperation with the National Association of Counties and the International City/County Management Association, the survey found the most common uses to be comprehensive planning, zoning and subdivision review, transportation, utilities, and stormwater drainage/floodplain management.

Seventy-five percent of respondents said natural resource issues, growth, and development were their local public policymakers' top concerns. Forty percent identified stormwater and flood management, and 25 percent chose water quality.

The survey showed at least 42 percent of the governments that listed growth management as a high priority did not use GIS in 1996, and 20 percent did not expect to by the end of 1997. This indicates a strong need and opportunity to show local leaders how GIS can help them address development and growth.

AMERICAN FORESTS can help communities make wise natural resource decisions with GIS-based CITYgreen software.

For more information, call AMERICAN FORESTS at 202/955-4500.

RELATED ARTICLE: WASHINGTON OUTLOOK

To celebrate the Clean Water Act's 25th anniversary last fall, Vice President Al Gore announced a $200 million incentive program to help protect the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. This new initiative, a partnership between the Clinton administration and the state of Maryland, is a model for water-quality efforts nationwide.

The initiative will work through the State Enhancement Program (SEP), which builds on the success of the Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Maryland landowners may voluntarily enroll up to 100,000 acres of environmentally sensitive land along streams and waterways to restore wetlands, plant forest and grass buffers, and protect the Bay from agricultural runoff. Maryland's SEP is the first in the nation, but Illinois and Minnesota also have submitted proposals to the USDA.

The Vice President also directed the Environmental Protection Agency and the USDA to work with federal agencies to develop a national Clean Water Action Plan within 120 days. Gore was given a copy of AMERICAN FORESTS' CITYgreen software by Deborah Gangloff.

Gore's directive identifies three goals: protecting public health, preventing polluted runoff, and ensuring community-based watershed management. It also presents three principles: developing cooperative approaches between federal, state, and local agencies, and tribal governments; ensuring maximum participation by community groups and the public; and emphasizing innovative approaches to pollution control, including incentives, market-based mechanisms, and partnerships with landowners and other private parties.

The directive also requires USDA and the Department of Interior "to develop a strategy to ensure proper stewardship of federally managed watersheds, and to restore watersheds adversely affected by past management practices."

We encourage community groups and individuals to help develop these important initiatives - Maryland's SEP model and the national Clean Water Action Plan - and ensure that tree planting and forest conservation play a prominent role in their implementation.

- Gerry Gray