Arbor Day Foundation

Tree City USA logo

The Tree City USA program, which is co-sponsored by the National Association of State Foresters and the United States Forest Service, has grown to include more than 3,400 towns, cities, and military bases in all 50 states.[7] This program recognizes cities and towns for urban and community forestry and helps provide assistance and public attention to showcase the importance of urban forestry.[8]

The foundation encourages communities across the nation to become Tree City USA by meeting four standards:[9]

• The community must have a tree board or department.
• The community must have established a community ordinance for tree care.
• There must be a community forestry program with an annual budget of at least $2 per capita.
• The community must have an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.

The Tree Line USA program[10] recognizes public and private utilities for their use of best practices in arboriculture, primarily following the ANSI A300 guidelines from the Tree Care Industry Association on tree topping and pruning,[11] tree removals and planting, and trenching or tunneling near trees.[12] In order to qualify, a utility must also provide annual training for their workers, educate the public on tree planting and the use of trees for energy conservation, and sponsor an Arbor Day celebration.[13][14]

Through partnerships with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters, Foundation corporate sponsors, and members have planted more than 45 million trees in America's national forests. An example of a forest replanting is the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, the largest national forest in California with two million acres. As of 2008, the Arbor Day Foundation with its partnership with the U.S. Forest Service has planted more than one million trees.[7]

Through a collaboration with Dimensions Educational Research Foundation, the Arbor Day Foundation is "teaching the importance of nature to children and exposing them to the outdoors through their Nature Explore Classrooms". This is taught to school administrators, landscape architects, and families and allow educators to build and certify a Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom.[7][8]

According to the foundation, 237 colleges and universities are recognized as Tree Campus USAs. Tree Campus USA recognition is obtained by having a program in place that manages the campus tree inventory along with tree care and maintenance.[7][8]

The Arbor Day Foundation's Rain Forest Rescue program "saves thousands of acres of tropical rain forest each year". Through the Arbor Day Specialty Coffee program, the Foundation "helps these people and farmers save and preserve the rain forest using sustainable agroforestry that includes the production of coffee beans" and "offers education and economic incentives for rain forest restoration and preservation."[7][15]

As part of the "Energy Saving Trees" program, an online tool allows the homeowner to "choose a tree for their yard, plot the tree in their yard using satellite imagery to calculate the energy savings over time".[7]

The Arbor Day Foundation teamed with MrBeast and Mark Rober to plant 20 million trees by planting a tree for each dollar donated through Team Trees. Notable donors include Elon Musk and Tobias Lütke, who each donated over a million dollars. The goal to reach 20,000,000 trees was reached on December 19, 2019.[16][17][18]