2011 is the International Year of Forests
The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2011 as International Year of Forests to promote broader understanding of the importance of forests and to bolster global efforts to promote sustainable forest management and conservation. With support from the U.S. Forest Service, the American Forest Foundation has partnered with the National Association of State Foresters to act as co-chairs of an ad-hoc steering committee to develop, guide, and facilitate plans for the U.S. celebration.
Our goal is to provide all forestry stakeholders with ideas and resources to participate in the celebration over the next year. From a national day of celebration to community-level actions, we are developing tools and ideas that use the platform of the Year of Forests to highlight current forestry issues and the good work being done in the broad forestry community nationwide.
We'll update this page as we make progress on these resources and inform our partners when they will be available for use. In the meantime,
please share your organization's plans with us so we can track and promote Year of Forests activities nationwide.
If you are an educator or a woodland owner, please tell us what activity you can do in 2011. Your feedback is important as we plan activities for the year to bring attention to America's forests and woodlands, environmental education and outdoor learning!
Take the survey.
"Year of Forests" Tools and Resources in development - Event toolkit
- Messaging, artwork and template materials
- National day of celebration
- Washington DC briefing and reception
- and much more!
Current "Year of Forests" Activities- Project Learning Tree's "Environmental Exchange Box" activity (PDF)
Use our specially designed activity with grades K-8 to help students learn more about their local forests, forests across the country, and forests around the globe. Students plan and conduct a "forest exchange" with another group of students in a different part of the country. Students are encouraged to collect items, samples, data, facts, and reports that teach their exchange partners about the forests and trees of their region. Project Learning Tree is the award-winning national environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation. - National Association of Conservation District’s "Forests for People" poster contest
This poster contest is open to public, private, or home school students, in kindergarten through grade 12. The contest will begin at the district level, advance to the state level, and finally state winners will be entered into a national contest. - Get to Know "This is My Forest" video contest
To enter, young people (18 and under) are invited to go outdoors and create a short video (30 or 60 seconds in length) that conveys the theme "This is My Forest". Whether it's a towering national forest or a tree in your backyard, tell us about your forest! The video contest is sponsored by the Get to Know Program, the U.S. Forest Service and Parks Canada.
