Good Morning TREES Members and Friends of the Organization,

TREES started as an idea on the barren hillsides of Southeast Asia, then in West Africa, Central America and beyond. The original field technicians, mostly Peace Corps Volunteers, eventually came home. Through their continued efforts, the idea stayed alive, mostly through letters to groups asking for our help, and by way of whatever trips we could afford to project sites overseas. The idea also kept growing among people in our own country. It grew on the premise that the people of these devastated lands, facing the loss of their homes and way of life, the disintegration of their families because of deforestation and its effects, are prepared to make great sacrifices to save themselves and their lands – if we are willing to give them some help.   Which we did – and are still doing today.

On August 14, 1989, Trees for the Future was incorporated as a non-profit organization, making this month the start of our 20th Anniversary year.   We have ambitious plans for this year, focused on increasing our presence in the field and bringing us as close as possible to the communities we serve.  Read more about our current projects, and our plans for the coming year, in the...

Hot News

• News from the Field
  Addressing water shortages & deforestation in Kenya
  Working with the Ugandan Scouts
  Some rain finally arriving in India
  Field update from Western Honduras
• Marking TREES 20th Anniversary
• Follow us on Facebook
• TREES Old Scanned Pics on Flickr
• Thank You to Our Plant-a-Tree Partners
• TREES Project Pictures on FLICKR
• TREES is on Skype

Nursery preparation in Kyark village, Uttarakhand, India

Bare root seedlings being distributed by Green Tree Foundation, India

News from the Field

Addressing Water Shortages and Deforestation in Kenya
Paulino Damiano Mugendi, TREES Kenya Program Coordinator, has been working with the Kavai Kamutua Mathaga Group in the Karurumo Area of Embu district. The primary challenges the group is addressing are water shortages and deforestation from collecting firewood and making charcoal. Trees for the Future has supplied tree seeds of species including: Grevillea robusta, Leucaena leucocephala, Albizia gummifera, Gmelina arborea and Faidherbia albida. Kavai Kamutua Mathaga Group will use these trees for fodder, firewood, posts, timber and nitrogen fixation in their farms. Paulino conducted a one-day workshop on agroforestry techniques, tree nursery management and the overall benefits that trees can provide to the community. Through the support of Trees for the Future, the group has received seeds and training that will help them restore this drought stricken desert to sustainable productivity. You can view a slideshow of our work in kenya by clicking here.

Working with Ugandan Scouts and the Ministry of Youth
The Bugandan Kingdom in Uganda has provided land on which Trees for the Future, in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth, hope to plant 100,000 tree seedlings this year. The Ugandan Scouts have been mobilized under the guidance of Trees for the Future to establish 3 tree nurseries of 10,000 seedlings each. The Scouts will plant 30,000 seedlings on a portion of the land set aside by the Bugandan Kingdom. Trees for the Future has provided training and seeds to both the Ugandan Scouts and other youth groups organized by the Ministry of Youth.

Some Rain Finally Arriving in India
The monsoons in India and Nepal have either failed or been severely delayed this year, causing some unavoidable setbacks and delays in outplanting.  Agricultural output is expected to drop significantly, and in some areas there is potential for a major famine.  We are working with our field staff to help provide assistance as we are able. 

Amongst this grim backdrop, there is some good news from our field coordinator in Nepal, Shankar Adhikari.  He sent out a brief update from deep in the Himalayan mountains last week, saying that the monsoon has finally started, and that they have started the outplanting work.  They are planting Thysanolaena maxima (Amriso), Leucaena leucocephala, and Calliandra calothyrus. Most of the amriso, a highly valued forage, has been planted on communal land which is susceptible to erosion. Likewise, leucaena and calliandra have been planted on terraces.  He will be sending photographs soon, once he returns to the city. 

Northern India
After initial meetings in the spring of 2009 with the community and government officials, this May women's groups were formed in 2 villages to lead the tree planting projects.  These groups identified land suitable for nurseries, and after conducting a demand assessment to determine which species to plant, seeds were sown in June and July 2009.  You can see the nurseries on Google Earth  by clicking here (you need to download the file and open it up on your computer), or you can view a slideshow of pictures by clicking here.

Southern India
Our partners in Southern India, the Green Tree Foundation and RDAS, have distributed some seedlings, but have mostly been tending the seedbeds and waiting for rains, which finally started very recently and hopefully will continue to strengthen.  The Green Tree Foundation is implementing a program focused on Integrated Village Development through Tree Planting, which focuses 13 greening strategies on 1 village, with the goal of making a major impact.  We hope to see more outplanting by next month.

Field Update from Western Honduras
Joshua Bogart, TREES regional coordinator for Central America, spent August 10-14th in the field, visiting three of the western provinces of Honduras: Lempira, Copan, and Ocotepeque. He visited projects started this year, worked with groups to prepare work for next year, met new potential partner groups, and presented the first 5 diplomas from our Spanish language Agroforestry Training Program given in Honduras.

In Lempira, Joshua met with Don Moises, the director of CEAS (Centro Educativo de Agricultor Sosetentible) Mejocote, who will be working with local producers planting forest gardens and forage species for cattle farming.   He then went to Las Mercedes, where after getting his car stuck in the river, Joshua met with the director of the local middle school to follow up on seed given for a school Nursery.

In Monte del Virgin, Copan, Joshua met with Don Julio Alvarado, where they visited a small watershed which is being converted from cattle pasture into a forest. Also in Monte del Virgin, Joshua taught several producers how to prune trees to yield the best timber. Farmers in this area planted a number of timber species last year and have been extremely impressed with the growth rate of Acrocarpus fraxinifoleus (see picture below).

In San Fransisco Connes, Ocotepeque, Joshua met with producers from two groups that are working on improving coffee production in the area, and a cooperative of Honey producers. Topics discussed were diversification of shade to provide a variety of products, and the development of meliferous forest gardens to provide large dependable supplies of nectar and pollen for a steady production of honey.  In El Moral, Ocotepeque, Joshua awarded 5 Agroforestry Training Program diplomas to members of a women´s agricultural cooperative which specializes in vegetable and flower production to sell in local communities. Techniques that would improve soil fertility and decrease erosion in their steep plots were discussed, as well as forage species which could be planted at their high altitudes to help alleviate pressure on their fragile pastureland.

Don Julio with an 18 month old Acrocarpus fraxinifolius in Copan, Honduras	Moringa saplings planted in the field of a small farmer in India	A farmer planting a seedling in Gambia

Marking TREES 20th Anniversary
For those of you in the Washington DC area - mark your calendars: On the 19th of September, TREES, in partnership with the Downtown Silver Spring Association, is hosting a day to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

For those who cannot make it, we plan on celebrating our anniversary by showcasing our history on our website, on flickr, and in our next newsletter (which is being prepared as we write).  We will be offering special 20th anniversary donation gifts and hope to host another silent art auction in the fall of 2010.

And, we are setting ourselves the challenging but reachable goal of planting 20 million trees in 2010.  We can only do it with your support, so please donate and help us reach that goal!

We have also pulled together a handful of old photographs from over the years, which you can see here on flickr.

Join us on Facebook
Over the past year, TREES has slowly been bulding a following on facebook.   We are finding it to be a great way to post interesting agroforestry related articles and links, along with updates from our projects.  You do not even need to be a facebook user to view our page - just click on this link!  If you do use facebook, please become a fan of TREES and join our cause.  It is a great way for us to share information!


Thanks to Our Partners and Donors
As we look back on our 20 years, we always remember that we could not do any of it without your help.  We would like to give a big thanks to a few more partners and donors this month. The Planeterra Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports sustainable community development through travel and voluntourism. One of their projects includes partnering with Trees for the Future to plant around 450,000 multi-purpose trees in Brazil in 2009.

We would also like to thank the Arlington, Virginia based “Our Lady Queen of Peace,” which is working on a tree planting program with St. Joseph’s Parish in Medor, Haiti. Through the support of Mary Susan Carson, a pilot project is being developed in partnership with Trees for the Future in the town of Medor to plant around 30,000 trees during this upcoming rainy season. After a successful start, we hope to expand the proejct in the future.


TREES Pictures on FLICKR
TREES has an incredible range of pictures from the past 30 years and as we distribute more cameras and GPS units to our field representatives, we are receiving more than ever before. We are working hard to put our best pictures from all of our project areas online. You can see our pictures by going to http://www.flickr.com/photos/plant-trees/sets/ (no logins or passwords needed).  Enjoy and share with your friends! We have compiled a special set of pictures for our 20th anniversary, which you can see here.


TREES is on SKYPE
Our international friends and partners will be happy to know that TREES can be called for free using SKYPE. Our skype name is treesftf - call us!