As we continue to experience record-setting fires each year, the Arbor Day Foundation knows that it will take a multi-faceted approach to restore the natural landscape that has been destroyed in communities and to build resiliency in forests near and far. In 1988, the Yellowstone Fires were the catalyst for the creation of the Arbor Day Foundation’s Reforestation program, which helped to restore 8,000 acres of severely burned land in the adjoining Gallatin National Forest. Those fires blackened 1.4 million acres, or 36 percent, of the park. It is still on record as the driest summer for the park. Unfortunately, 30 years later, the unprecedented conditions that brought on those fires are becoming the norm, rather than the exception. Across the West, summers and winters are hotter, with snowpack melting earlier in the spring, causing fuel to dry out sooner, and periods of drought to be extended. For this reason, we are excited to share that the Arbor Day Foundation has committed to planting an additional 2 million trees in California over the next four years because of multiple large-scale fires like the 2018 Carr Fire and Mendocino Complex Fires. Since 2014, we have planted nearly 3.2 million trees throughout … Continue reading The Time to Plant is Now: Help us Restore our Forests