Every year, more and more of our National Forests are affected by natural disturbances that cause deforestation. Throughout much of our forests, wildfire, insects and disease - exacerbated by climate change - are jeopardizing the very things that make our forests special. In the Southeast, restoring and expanding native ecosystems is a priority. Planting trees helps restore these public lands, ensuring that our forests can continue to provide wildlife habitat, supply water to millions of people, and help fight climate change. Learn more about the benefits of reforestation.

Where are the trees planted?

The National Forest Foundation (NFF) works with the USDA Forest Service to select planting sites on our 193-million-acre National Forest System where the ecological need is greatest. We plant in all regions, responding to where trees are needed most. Please visit our planting map for examples of projects and our priority regions map for more on where and why we plant trees.

Visit our campaign progress page to see how many trees the 50 Million campaign has already planted. Prior to the launch of the campaign in 2018, the NFF planted more than 9.5 million trees on National Forests across the country. We’re excited to keep planting trees and scaling up our reforestation efforts!

We plant trees in areas that have experienced a natural disturbance or those that were historically altered. We only plant native and ecologically appropriate species picked by Forest Service professionals. Sometimes we plant only one species, sometimes multiple – every project is designed to improve ecological conditions for each specific forest.

More frequently asked questions can be found on the National Forest Foundation site.

Donation options are available on the NFF site here.