Katrina 'ReLeaf' plantings begin.

Four community groups in Louisiana are the first recipients of AMERICAN FORESTS grants to restore native tree canopy lost to Hurricane Katrina. Major support for the grant money came from The Home Depot Foundation and AMIRICAN FORESTS members.

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The four Katrina ReLeaf grant recipients are New Orleans City Park, in New Orleans; Friends of Jefferson the Beautiful, in Jefferson; Shreveport Green, in Shreveport; and Parkway Partners, in New Orleans. Grant recipients were selected by AMERICAN FORESTS' Katrina ReLeaf Fund Advisory Committee, made up of corporate, federal, state, and nonprofit representatives.

As communities rebuild, the grant money will help these green groups educate and involve residents, leverage funding from local and federal partners, and restore urban tree cover. Projects throughout the fall of 2006 and into 2007 will plant trees in public areas and play an important role in the recovery in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities.

In New Orleans, the money will be used to replant 650 trees throughout the celebrated City Park, which lost more than 1,000 trees during the hurricane. The park, like so many other parts of the city, was badly flooded, forcing many of the iconic live oaks to sit in standing water for days. In addition to supporting the replanting of live oak throughout the park, Katrina ReLeaf will restore an avenue of crape myrtles and reestablish Couturie Forest Arboretum, the largest forested area in the park.

Parkway Partners' project will restore one of New Orleans' signature corridors, replanting large trees along major roadways downtown and involving local neighborhood associations and civic groups. It also has developed a citywide plan for the replanting of major street trees.

Shreveport Green will use its grant money to increase tree production in its nursery, providing the Gulf Coast with trees to plant for reforestation efforts. In Jefferson Parish, Friends of Jefferson the Beautiful will plant 1,250 trees along streets and roadways, on selected school grounds, on the campus of the Town of Jean Lafitte, and in the Butterfly Park in Grand Isle. Plantings began in October and will continue through 2007, involving local communities and educating them on the benefits and importance of trees.

"Local groups in the Katrina-affected area are taking action to restore their urban forests," says Deborah Gangloff, AMERICAN FORESTS' executive director. "This is a tremendous step towards restoring communities, and one that AMERICAN FORESTS is proud to support."

The Katrina ReLeaf Fund was started in the fall of 2005 in response to the severe tree loss caused by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast. The Fund immediately received support from the Home Depot Foundation and AMERICAN FORESTS members.

"The Home Depot Foundation is pleased to support these four outstanding projects and AMERICAN FORESTS' Katrina ReLeaf Fund," said Kelly Caffarelli, executive director of The Home Depot Foundation. "Our foundation works with affordable housing and tree-planting organizations across the country to promote livable and healthy communities. By forming partnerships with these organizations, we are furthering our shared mission of creating stronger, more sustainable neighborhoods."

The Home Depot Foundation, created in 2002, provides resources to assist nonprofit organizations in building affordable, efficient, and healthy homes throughout the United States and Canada. Fundraising efforts for the Katrina ReLeaf Fund will continue throughout this fall and into 2007 to continue support for tree planting along the Gulf Coast.

To contribute to AMERICAN FORESTS' Katrina ReLeaf fund, visit https://www.americanforests.org/planttrees/