Texas' tree-savvy teachers.

Texas teachers of grades 6 through 8 are taking part in a special environmental education program this fall as part of the grocery store H-E-B's celebration of its 100th anniversary. Forty schools have been selected to receive software and training to teach students about the environmental importance of trees. Each school also received five saplings connected to historic people or places to plant on its grounds.

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AMERICAN FORESTS provided the training and its GIS software. CITYgreen, which has become an effective way to teach math, science and geography with real-world applications. Across the country, students are combining the computer technology with hands-on activities to learn to value trees in their local area.

AMERICAN FORESTS' environmental education program, which began in Rhode Island in 2001 and is taking root in schools across the country, features lesson plans derived by middle and high school teachers. Teachers say that's important because they know the classroom work has been field tested by their peers.

So far, teachers in 24 states and the District of Columbia have trained on the program. In Washington, DC, for example, five schools participated in a program offered by AMERICAN FORESTS and the nonprofit Casey Trees. For that program students learned to ID and inventory trees in schoolyards and surrounding neighborhoods. Casey Trees' citizen foresters helped with the program in the field.

Mike Lehman, who coordinates the environmental education program for AMERICAN FORESTS, says he's pleased by the responses he's gotten from teachers. Evaluations have been routinely positive.

One evaluation said the program had garnered 'the greatest student involvement of any project in my 32 years of teaching,' Lehman says.

The school program was a natural fit for H-E-B, which says it was looking for an initiative that exemplified its "deep Texas roots and our future growth," H-E-B's Kate Rogers says.

"H-E-B is committed to actively pursuing environmental initiatives that ensure the natural beauty of the communities we serve, and that educate students about the world around them," says Susan Ghertner, H-E-B's manager of environmental affairs.

"We are proud to offer this opportunity to Texas educators and to partner with an organization that is committed to preserving our forests for generations to come."

AMERICAN FORESTS also will plant 100 trees in a Global ReLeaf Forest project in honor of each of the 40 schools participating in the program.

For more about CITYgreen or to inquire about starting a program in your school, visit our website at www.americanforests.org or contact Mike Lehman at 202/737-1944 Ext. 212.