spring 2006 newsletter

The plane flew east along way in order to getaround an out-of-seasontyphoon, so we landedmore than an hour late.Coming in across thisisland of Antique, I wasable to get betteracquainted with the riversystem - and what it isdoing to lowland areas ofAntique Province.A few handshakes at the

airport and I was hustledoff to a meeting with theGovernor, who invitedTREES there, and herstaff. It was a long meet-ing, mostly, I believe,because there wasn'tmuch confidence, at thisstage, that anything canbe done to resolve theproblem. So confidence-building was an earlypriority.

The Sibalom River system presents a real challenge.On the map it looks a bit like a plate of spaghetti, withhundreds of streams and smaller rivers coming to it

from all directions because of the steep topography.The mountainsides themselves present strange pat-terns, with deep forests remaining in a few placeswhile, nearby, the heavy rains have resulted in entiremountainsides sheared off for lack of protective treecover.The uplands are divided into thousands of small farms

in small valleys, and on those steep mountain sides as

Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XIV, No. 1

The quarterly newsletter of Trees for the FutureSpring 2006 Vol. XIV, No. 1

Antique, the Philippines: A RIVER GONE WILD

continued page 5

Articles Inside:Distance Agroforestry Training, Honduras

Program Attracts the Attention of the President,Africa program Grows by 40%,, Annual &

Financial Reports, Extinction Means Forever

TREES’ Director Dave Deppner visit one of our nurseries in the Zambales, Philippines.These Acacia mangium seedlings are about to be outplanted. A. mangium is planted in

agroforestry systems for its timber.

It's that time again:nursery season. We atTrees for the Future areleading a global effortto distribute seeds andtrain communities toproduce millions ofseedlings.

We are excited towelcome new requestsfor help from countrieswe have not worked inbefore, such as Iraq,and we are glad to seethat countries whereour efforts have slowedin recent years, such asZambia, Indonesia, andNepal, have all beenreinvigorated with thehelp of our DistanceAgroforestry TrainingProgram and the motivation of localleaders.

What are the top tree speciescommunities are asking for? Leucaenacontinues to be a top priority as well asAlbizzia, Calliandra, Cassia, Acacia,and Prosopis species. What do all ofthese have in common? They tend to

have small leaflets (that can quicklybiodegrade and build the soil), they arefast-growing, and they can be used toaddress a number of economic andenvironmental challenges.

In addition to the great perform-ance of out field reps, technicians at theRuppe Center will help plant as many as

an additional1,000,000 trees thisyear through dis-tance education andcommunity supportefforts.


Johnny Ipil-Seed News is aquarterly newsletter of TREESFOR THE FUTURE, Inc., anonprofit organization dedicatedto helping people of the world’spoorest communities to beginenvironmentally beneficial, self-help projects.

This newsletter is printed bywind energy on recycled paperwith soy-based ink and is sent toall supporting members toinform them of recent events,plans, financial matters and howtheir support is helping people.

BOARD OF DIRECTORSDr. John R. Moore, Dr. PeterFalk, Mr. Oscar Gruspe, Mr.

Dave Deppner, Mr. HankDearden, Mr. Bedru Sultan

Ms. Marilou Herman

FOUNDERSDave and Grace Deppner

STAFFJohn Leary, Intern’l ProgramsAdam Norikane, Central AmericaChris Wells, Advisor on Asia

Gabby Mondragon, N. PhilippinesCedric Encarnation, S. Philippines

Jorge Betancourt, HondurasGuillermo Valle, Honduras

Omar Ndao, SenegalJohn Coleman, Belize

Eugene Edwards, BelizeEben Mensah, Ghana

Gabby Papouloute, Haiti

If you wish to receive thisnewsletter, or would like moreinformation, please contact:

TREES FOR THE FUTUREThe Loret Miller Ruppe

Center for Sustainable Development

9000 16th Street, P.O. Box 7027

Silver Spring, MD 20907

Toll Free: 1-800-643-0001Ph: 301-565-0630

Fax: [email protected]

WWW.PLANT-TREES.ORG

News from the Ruppe Center

Our new agro-forestry training

book and some ofthe training materi-als we send to proj-ect leaders around

the world.

Besides delivering on-site training to agroforestry projectsthroughout the world, Trees for the Future’s technicians alsosend almost 200 packages to community leaders around theworld, equipping them with the materials they need to lead a

successful reforestation campaign.

As our staff technicians visit project sites inmany developing nations, we are struck by the fact thatthere are almost no training materials available aboutreforestation, agro-forestry, or afforestation for fieldtechnicians, community leaders or others who want todo something to alleviate the suffering of people,brought on by illegal logging, over-grazing, "slash-and-burn" farming and other activities that are devas-tating their lands.

In response to this need, after interviewingcommunity leaders around the world about their train-ing needs, we are implementing this long distanceagroforestry training program. In it, we offer our ownexperience, and that of the communities we haveserved, over a period of more than 30 years, in 9,500communities of Asia, Africa and the Americas, wherewe and the hundreds of local organizations with whichwe partner, have helped local families to plant morethan 43 million trees.

After endless hours developing the new train-ing program, TREES launched its first distance agro-forestry training session on March 1, 2006. 130 com-munity leaders in 32 countries joined the program, andadditional applicants continue to come in.

The centerpiece of the program is the TakingAction, Reaching Out training manual that takes par-ticipants through 11 exciting lessons. The trainingbegins with explaining unsustainable land use andglobal climate change, and it quickly gets into educat-ing trainees on agroforestry systems and the types oftrees that make them so productive. There are also les-sons in understanding the perceived needs of commu-nities, identifying income-generating projects, and ofcourse, nursery production and planting techniques.More information can be found on our website underResources.

The training program is complemented with anAgroforestry Library CD, which contains resourcesthat are referred to throughout the training booklet, aswell as an online forum through which participants areexchanging questions and ideas on a variety of agro-forestry related topics.

We are overcoming great distances, culturalbarriers, and technical challenges to support the cre-ation of an environmental army equipped with theskills necessary to reverse the trends of degradationand unsustainable land use that threaten our future.

Johnny Ipil-Seed News Vol. XIV, No.1

The Challenge of Distance Agroforestry Training

One of TREES FieldReps in Honduras,

FundArbol DirectorGuillermo Valle, left,

discusses our newagroforestry training

program withPresident Manuel

“Mel” Zelaya Rosalesof Honduras .

Most people have never heard ofPena Blanca. It's a pretty little townon the north coast of Lake Yojoa innorthern Honduras. Renaldo Sanchezlives there with his family. He likesthe town so much that he wanted to bemayor. He ran in the election, and gotbeaten - badly, he says.

From this, he decided that since hecouldn't be mayor, he could still dosomething for his town. So he decid-ed to become the garbage collector.He won the job handily, since nobody ran against himfor this position.

Rey was able get a small grant. With this, he pur-chased a small truck, evil looking but reliable, andhired a few workers because, for a small town, PinaBlanca had plenty of basura.

On the small piece of land around his house, he andhis team sorted this mess and started processing it. Asmall pelleting machine turned the plastic bottles intoan easily marketable product. Same for glass. Tin canswere also easy to sell. He soon gota bigger truck and hired some newworkers: the job nobody wantedwas turning into a gold mine.

What about the "organics"? Thatsoon became the best part thanksto Rey's ingenuity. All of that, withgrass clippings and whatever elseturned up, went into a pit and sooncame out as compost.

Now that took some sellingbecause few, if any, local residentshad any idea of its use. By now hehad a very big pile of dark, richsoil. He also had the remains ofsome ancient refrigerators, so hetook off the doors, laid them ontheir backs, filled them with com-post and had the best vegetablegarden the town had ever seen.Now people are buying all thecompost he can produce. The trashcollector now has an income manytimes that of the mayor by doing

something most politicians never consid-er: helping their constituents.

Still, Rey wasn't satisfied that he wasdoing enough for his town. Looking up atthe bald mountains, and the mud theywere dumping in the lake every rainy sea-son, he decided to produce tree seedlings,getting his workers, and many townspeo-ple as well, busy re-greening those slopes.The town gave him free use of a piece of

land, about 60 feet wide and as long as hewould ever need, along the river. TREES,

through Jorge Betancourt and his AMUPROLAGOgroup, are providing the seeds and training materialshe can pass along to the community. The seedlings heis producing are free to people who share his determi-nation to save the mountains.

We think there are several morals to be taken fromthis story but, even if there are not, we thought you'dlike to meet one of the great people making your pro-gram work.


Renaldo Sanchez Alvarado: COMING BACK WITH A SMILE

Renaldo uses an old refrigerator as a tomato garden bed! He also covers thetomatoes with clear plastic to minimize damage from rains and winds. We need

this kind of ingenuity at work for us!


Antique, the Philippines: A RIVER GONE WILD from page 1

well. Technology about sustainable upland agriculturehas obviously not reached these areas and the majorityof farmers still do things the hard, and very unproduc-tive, way. "Slash-and-burn" is obvious everywhere butnot part of the farming system. Hunters do the burning.Asking what they hunt, I wished I hadn't: monitorlizards and monkeys! On degraded uplands, peoplecan't be too choosy about what they eat.

TREES is fortunate to have a "sister" organization -the MarilouCares Foundation of Marilou Herman - inAntique. This way we have been able to recruit someof the best thinkers in the province, as well as a tiny,locally-made truck that held six of us plus the driver.With that, we began touring the upland communities.One of our first stops was a village called Pankas, not

too far from the mouth of the river. Most of the housesthere have been abandoned. It was easy to see why.The river had shifted and was undercutting the bank.Several houses had already collapsed into the water.

Efforts made to construct walls that would return theriver to its former course had completely failed: it waseasy to imagine the massive flow of water comingdown that riverbed in the rainy season, again for lackof trees.

In all, we visited more than a dozen upland barangays(villages). In most cases, the barangay hall quicklyfilled with local farmers - and their wives, who areeven more concerned about how much longer theirlands will support them. They told us their problems,but they also gave us their experiences and ideas forhow these mountains might be saved.

In fact, quite a few families had already startedseedbed nurseries, with seeds we had sent somemonths earlier (when I made my now-famous attemptto "kick the bucket") and they took us out to see them.That's when we discovered the reality about somethingwe had begun to suspect: the continued cropping/burn-ing of these fragile soils had depleted them to the point

Deforestation in Antique Province in the southern Philippines has changed the course of an entire river system, causinghouses to fall in the water and entire villages to be abandoned. Our program will help plant 750,000 trees on degraded

lands in the Philippines this year.

that the seedlings were barely growing. Because there are many cattle and other livestock on

these farms, we suggested they might want to addsome "compost" tothe seedbeds. Butconsidering the enor-mity of the problem,we recommendedthat the severalm u n i c i p a l i t i e sinvolved should alsostart their own nurs-eries and deliverseedlings to the par-ticipating villages asthe seasonal rainsbegin. The"barestem" plantingsystem, largelydeveloped byTREES, shouldgreatly lessen the

logistical problems involved.Over the following weeks, we delivered over

420,000 tree seeds of several species-enough to real-ize at least a third-million seedlings this season withgood management. Many of these seeds are alreadyplanted in the municipal nurseries (which were quick-ly started). Others are being distributed from theMarilouCares office to barangay leaders.

We're convinced that this effort will result in morethan a half-million trees growing in these uplands thisyear alone. But as we later told the Governor's staff, tobring that river back, to assure sufficient water forpeople's needs during the long dry season, there is anurgent need to reforest a now denuded area of about13,000 acres in that watershed. That will requireplanting more than eight million trees!The word URGENT took on additional meaning two

weeks later on another of the Visayan Islands, Leyte,when a mudslide virtually wiped out a community of2,500 people, burying a school with some 300 chil-dren inside. Apparently the only survivors were work-ers who had left the town earlier that morning.

In Antique, where this threat is also very real, wereally appreciate the generosity of our members, whohave allowed us to made a good start. The challenge

now is to keep building on the early success and moti-vating more community leaders to join in.


TREES' Philippine program leader Gabby Mondragon is coordinating the harvesting of leaucae-na seeds in the Zambales Province, an area that has been largely destroyed by the eruption of

Mount Pinatubo. Leucaena trees are bring organic matter back to the degraded uplands.

Some things never change: Dave got the nickname JohnnyIpil-Seed working in the Philippines, distributing seed andshowing people how to start nurseries. Guess what he is

doing in this picture . . .

Antique, the Philippines: A RIVER GONE WILD continued

From Punta Gorda in Belize there is a small launch(about 20 passengers) that carries you to Puerto Barriosin Guatemala. It's about one thrill-filled hour on thewater. After 27 years of marital bliss, Grace and Davefinally got their honeymoon cruise.From Barrios, by bus, taxi, a bit of walking, you even-

tually wind up in a sleepy little place called Corinta in

Honduras. Most people never heard of it. Sounds a lit-tle tacky but better than sitting three hours in an air-port. Also, no airport taxes in Corinta.

We arrived on a Monday afternoon in thisslightly disreputable fashion. Things soonbegan to improve. By Thursday, we had aninvitation to the Casa Presidential to meetHonduras' new President-Manuel "Mel"Zenaida Rosales.

The meeting was much more than a quickhandshake. It was his first social gathering,with the six Rotary Clubs of the Capitol area,and included most of his cabinet. High on thelist of matters to be discussed with them wasthe issue of illegal logging: and what can bedone about it.

Through these Rotarians, and our local part-ner, FundArbol, TREES has already distrib-uted some 430,000 seeds of several species offast-growing, beneficial trees. The program israpidly spreading, especially in the hot south-ern part of the country where deforestationhas taken a heavy toll.

President Zenaida is especially sensitive to the issue.During the election campaign, it was pointed out thathe himself had built a fortune as a logger - in that sameOlancho Valley where a parish priest, Fr. AndresTamayo, has now declared war on the loggers whonow are going back to cut any trees they missed before.We talked for a long time with the President's chief of

staff, Johnny Rosenthal, whose father headsthe cattle raisers' association (grazing sys-tems cause the greatest part of the destructionof tree cover in the uplands). And also withthe President's son, Hector, who told us hisfather has promised to plant a tree whereverhe goes.

Hector is especially interested in our effortsto work withe FundArbol, Peace Corps,Rotary Clubs, the AMUPROLAGO associa-tion of 17 towns trying to save Lake Yojoa,and with local cooperatives and associations.We showed him what has been achieved sofar, pointing out that with this increasedencouragement at the national level, thesedegraded lands can be protected again andthese first trees are beginning a continuing,

natural, return of the diversity of the not-too-distantpast.


In Honduras: EVERYWHERE I GO, I WILL PLANT A TREE

Contrast: A beautiful hotel in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, hasenough water for a pool during the rainy season, but the water isshut off frequently during the dry season. The degraded mountains

in the background are a major part of the reason.

TREES Associate Director Grace Deppner (left) distributes bags oftree seeds to Peace Corps Volunteers in Honduras.


Quick Overview of projects in AfricaTREES began supporting projects in two (2)

new African countries last year: Zambia and Benin,where we had done little in previous years. While weonly began supporting one new project in Benin,which has been through a partnership with Frenchpriests working in Cotonou, we have begun helpingseven (7) separate groups in Zambia. Most of thesegroups in Zambia are based in Lusaka, and the othersare in towns such as Makonde and Ndola. TREEShelped communities in Benin and Zambia plant over33,000 trees in 2005.

The participating communities in Cameroonwere spread throughout the country, including Marouain the North, some groups in the South West Province,and a cluster in the North West Province where com-munities are planting trees such as Leucaena trees tocombat the long term-degradation caused by massiveeucalyptus plantations.

The DRC, Togo, and the Gambia all have smallprograms, though recent interest through letters andemails is showing that these programs may grow sig-nificantly over the next year.

TREES continues to support active projects inZimbabwe and Sierra Leone though no new projectswere established in 2005.

Africa Program Grows by 40% - Searching for Support for More Field Reps

In 2005, the international reforestation efforts ofTrees for the Future continued support for 102 pro-grams in Africa, and over the past few months, therecent surge in new project requests from Africahas increased the total number of partners by 40%.With this growth, the program will plant over1,000,000 trees this year.

TREES is now working with 140 partners in 20African countries, and this number continues tosoar as we sign up more and more communityleaders in our new Distance Agroforestry TrainingProgram.

The one million trees we will plant this year areNOT evenly distributed throughout the continent,in fact despite a recent spike in the number of com-munities in East Africa joining the program, half ofthis year's million trees may likely be planted injust two countries: Senegal and Ghana. The workof TREES Field Reps - Omar Ndao in Senegal andEben Mensah in Ghana - has been incredibly effec-tive at expanding their grassroots programs. Nowif we can plant 200,000 trees throughout Ugandawithout a full-time field representative, imaginewhat we could do if we did have one..

“Moringa the tree for thefuture has been welcomed atBangumi (BandunduProvince).

People enjoy cooking themwith pondu (cassava leaves)or in beans. Some use theleaves as tea or coffee.

Malnourished childrenhave recuperated theirweight and health after tak-ing regularly Moringa leavesand toasted seed.”

-Gracia Matondo Salvation ArmyKinshasa, Congo


In Nigeria TREES is supporting groups in both Imo and Cross River States, and we have major plans toexpand extension services through Nigeria in 2006 with the help of representatives from Nature's World whohave contacted us toward the end of 2005.

The programs in East Africa - Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda - planted over 100,000 trees thisyear. Building on the energy created by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai, communities throughoutEast Africa have joined a recent movement to expand reforestation activities.

Closer look at Congo: Moringa Trees (see picture on previous page)With the support of Trees for the Future, The Salvation Army located in Congo Kinshasa planted 22,684

trees in 2005, and we have recently sent them enough seeds and training materials to plant twice that amount in2006. One of the popular tree species that we are distributing to communities throughout Africa is the moringatree. The leaves of Moringa trees are a rich source of vitamins and protein.

Closer look at Zambia: Joas ChihanguJoas Chihangu

continues to be astrong partner forTrees for the Future inZambia. In additionto his ministry work,Joas works with com-munities to imple-ment tree plantingprojects, honey pro-duction, and now theyare beginning to plantjatropha trees forbiodiesel. The treeswe helped Joas plantin 2003 are now pro-ducing a local sourceof high-quality seed,and these seeds aredistributed throughoutthe country.

Closer look at Cameroon: Diversity (picture on next page)From the mountains of northwest Cameroon, we have received a continuously increasing number of

requests for help. Many communities are suffering from the long-term damage caused by massive eucalyptusplantations. Other communities are attempting to reverse the degradation that is endangering Cameroon'suplands. The tree planting 'bug' is really catching on. After seeing the damage caused by mono-cultured planta-tions of oil palm and eucalyptus, diversifying tree-based production systems has become a top priority through-out the mountainous areas of northwest Cameroon.

Africa Program Grows by 40% continued

Closer look at Senegal: 20 feet in One YearProtecting land from the encroaching Sahara Desert is a

difficult job that has just become easier. Imagine a tree thatgrows 20 feet, establishes a strong windbreak, and can help afamily produce 100% of their own fuelwood and animal foragein the first year! We are having amazing success with Leucaenatrees in Senegal, and they are one of a number of fast-growingtrees that Omar has integrated into his extension efforts.


From this

To This

In just one year!

Africa Program Grows by 40% continued

Members of the nationalSociety for Conservation andSustainable development inBamenda, Cameroon, mix

soil and compost while work-ing in the nursery.

General: The year began with global attention on anatural disaster - a major tsunami off the coast of Ache,Sumatra, killed over 280,000 people along coastlinesas far away as Somalia in Africa.

Within weeks, we received urgent messages fromcoastal communities in Tamil Nadu, India, for help toplant trees. Seeds and training materials were quicklysent to about 30 groups. Eventually, more than 120 vil-lage projects were started. Local leaders wanted treesto mitigate future tsunamis, provide a fast and contin-uous source of income from the wood, and to plant onfields that were submerged in sea water - they find thiscleans up the salt. This program continues to grow.

The most significant event of 2005 was another natu-ral disaster, this time along our own Gulf Coast. Withindays the public came to see that just a small change inthe temperature of oceans could bring great numbers ofhurricanes, some so violent that a major American citywas wiped out in only one day. Interest in our programbegan steadily growing.The International Program: In 2005 we assistedabout 23,000 participating families, in 660 developingcommunities, to plant over 3,100,000 beneficial, per-manent trees. This in addition to trees grown fromseeds of trees planted in earlier projects.

Staff technicians spent 144 days at project sites. Newprograms were started in India, Uganda, CongoDemocratic Republic and Zambia. We provided pre-service and in-service training to Peace CorpsVolunteers in Senegal, Morocco, Belize, thePhilippines, Honduras, the Gambia and Cameroon.

We developed tree seed farms in Senegal, Belize,Ethiopia and the Philippines and within a year shouldbe producing ample supplies of at least 12 species ofmulti-purpose, fast-growing, trees.Personnel: Our Maryland staff has grown to five (5)full-time technicians, with three (3) part-time assis-tants. In addition, we trained and support 12 localextension workers in the Philippines, Senegal,Honduras, Belize, Ghana and Haiti. New Ideas/Activities: The program benefitted byworking closely with environmentally concerned pri-vate businesses. Working Assets, a telephone consoli-dating company in San Francisco, has given a grantthat has started a project of more than 85,000 trees inthe Philippines. Cafe Imports in Minnesota provided

funding for Central America to plant 80,000 trees thatwill offset all of the carbon dioxide emissions fromtheir operations. An eco-tourism idea with Jam Cruiseout of Florida brought us 400 new members. Bookpublishers/ sellers are very supportive of this programwhich plants trees to offset paper used for printing.

The sudden rise in gasoline prices has resulted inmajor efforts throughout the Developing World tolocally produce alternative energy products. Rangingfrom refining coconut oil in the Philippines (with char-coal from coconut husks now exported), refiningAfrican palm oil in Central America, and plantingJatropha Trees in Africa, people in developing commu-nities are discovering they have the ability to greatlyreduce their dependency on imported oil. Much of thisinnovation is happening at the village level, for thebenefit of the people who have been especially margin-alized by "globalization". TREES is intensely involvedin several such projects.Education: The idea of Long Distance training hasbecome an especially important part of our inter-national program. We find relevant information aboutreforestation and agro-forestry is seldom available tofield technicians, including Peace Corps. We publishedThe Global Cooling Answer Book - a book about treesand their relation to global climate change. By year'send we had nearly completed an agro-forestry trainingmanual, complete with compact discs. With this manu-al, we will soon be able to provide training certificatesto field technicians worldwide, strengthening theirrole.Financial: In 2004 (an election year) TREES hadexperienced greatly reduced revenue, especially fromprivate foundations, ending the year with a shortfall ofabout $23,000. In 2005, total support increased bymore than $70,000, allowing the hiring of added staffand expansion of the program. Much of this added sup-port came from foundations and private businesses. The Website: Much credit is due to a greatly improvedwebsite, which brought in over 550 new members in itsfirst 12 months. In the following two months (throughJanuary, 2006) it brought an additional 1,200 newmembers, showing we are learning how to use thisvaluable tool. (There are PLENTY of new bumperstickers if you want one).

Dave Deppner, Executive


TREES FOR THE FUTURE, INC.ANNUAL REPORT - 2005


TREES FOR THE FUTURE, INC.PRELIMINARY FINANCIAL REPORT - 2005

In February of this year, TREES Latin AmericanProgram Coordinator, Adam Norikane and ourCommunity Development Volunteer, AnneToomey, made a trip up to Honduras to visit ourproject sites, meet with several organizations tocollaborate on projects and to make sure the nurs-eries were on schedule for the upcoming rainy sea-son. Finding a break in their class schedules, thetwo left their program in Sustainable Development& Natural Resources at the University for Peace inSan José, Costa Rica, and headed up north. Neitherof them had visited Honduras and so the trip servedto initiate them into TREES program in Honduras.

This trip was full of encouraging encounterswith a diverse group of Hondurans. One of thetowns that we visited in the Lake Yojoa region hasan individual working there who has shown a lot of ini-tiative in promoting environmental projects. Renaldoof Peña Blanca is responsible for organizing the solidwaste collectionand disposal.Through a grantfrom an outsideagency Renaldoobtained a pickuptruck for thegarbage collec-tion and hastransformed thebackyard dump-ing practice ofthe town to a cen-tralized system.He realized thevalue of cleanstreets fortourism, aesthet-ics and hygieneand he made ithappen. Bycombing throughthe discards, hehas kept itemsand put themback to use in anefficient recycling of goods. Most impressive was hisconversion of an old refrigerator and some corrugated

plastic into a garden bed and pseudo-greenhouse fortomatoes in an area that gets too cold to grow themnormally (Lake Yojoa region is located in the moun-tains of north-central Honduras). Now, Renaldo is put-

ting that inge-nuity to usefor us and hehas agreed tohelp Trees forthe Future inorganizing al a r g e - s c a l etree nurserywith the coop-eration of twolocal schools.Renaldo hascleared andleveled an areanext to theLake's hydro-e l e c t r i cdrainage canaland the mainroad for thisnursery. Notonly will thespot be highlyvisible andprovide great

recognition of the town's dedication to environmental-ism, but it is conveniently located right next to a plen-


TREES Technicians Provide On-Site Support in Honduras

Trip Objectives:

1. Familiarize Adam and Anne with our ongoing projects inHonduras.2. Solidify plans with our new Honduran partner, FundArbol, to meetthe goal of planting one million trees in 2006 with our ambitiousArbol por la Vida, or Trees for Life, joint program by working on aframework for implementation.3. Meet with Peace Corps Honduras' Associate Director for ProtectedAreas Management, Luis Estrada, and Project Manager, MenelioBardales, to discuss ways to improve Peace Corps volunteer cooper-ation with Trees for the Future.4. Work with Jorge Betancourt, the TREES Honduras FieldRepresentative, to finalize plans for the Lake Yojoa reforestation pro-gram.5. Visit several nurseries both in the Lake Yojoa region and theCholuteca region to expand our knowledge on commonly used andvaluable local tree species as well as to offer suggestions for theincorporation of certain tree species into those nursery programs.6. Distribute seeds and provide on-site technical training to militarypersonnel on the Isla del Tigre naval base in the Golfo de Fonseca,with their initiation of a pilot nursery project of ~5,000 trees.

tiful water source for the dry season. We are excitedabout continuing working with Renaldo on this projectand others.

On our visit to the Isla del Tigre, where a Honduranmilitary base is preparing to set up a nursery, we met avery motivated group. In preparation for our arrival,the military built a shade structure for their nursery andcalled a meeting of their personnel. The training wentwell with everyone sharing ideas on different treespecies and with the military interested in adopting ourbarestem nursery idea to increase the amount of treesthat they will be able to outplant. Their idea is to refor-est the islands within the Gulf of Fonseca in an ambi-tious push to reclaim the land. Everyone there was

happy and excited to talk about treesand show where they had planteddifferent species around the base.The highlight of the trip was whenthey took us on a tour of the facilityand they told us that they wouldshow us a tree that grew out of aboat. I thought my Spanish wasfailing me, but lo and behold theywere right. Growing right out of adry-docked boat's deck was a tree.It had long since passed away andwe could see the roots reaching outof the bottom of the boat to searchfor more nutrients, but it was a treenonetheless. These guys were reallyinto trees and we did nothing butencourage their enthusiasm.

We learned so much from thetechnicians of FundArbol, the Peace Corps volunteersthat we met and from the various individuals who gaveus their time and effort to make our project worthwhile.The people of Honduras are generous and courteousand we have no doubt that our work with them in thefuture will be fruitful. We will easily surpass the plant-ing of one million trees in Honduras this year.


Adam (left) and FundArbol Director Guillermo Valle (right) hold bags of seedthat Trees for the Future supplied to FundArbol. Agronomist/Forestry

Technician, Anibal Riviera (middle) holds a TREES educational poster in Spanish.

Left: Distributing seed to military personnel on Isla del Tigre

Above: Jorge, left, and Adam, right, discuss refor-estation of pine trees with Jaime, a technician at the

Forest Service.

For many months, adebate has gone on abouthow we humans managedto get here. Since it takesplace in schools, churchesand the halls of govern-ment, with a fervor thatbrings back shades ofClarence Darrow andWilliam Jennings Bryan,we must assume both sides

are quite serious. After all, if we don't know where wecame from, how can we know where we're going? Thatbrings another question we might ask ourselves:

With 999 out of every 1,000 species that ever inhab-ited the earth now extinct, why are we in such a bighurry to follow their example?

For most of this Fall and Winter, we've been on thego: me to the Philippines, then twice to CentralAmerica. Adam and Ann are in Costa Rica. John toMali and Senegal. We've seen things that make us won-der why people are in such a big hurry to kill eachother off. Here I offer some examples:

In 1991, the mountains above the town of Ormoc onthe Philippine Island of Leyte were almost completelydenuded by an international logging alliance. Thencame a powerful but slow-moving typhoon that stayedover the island for several days, unleashing torrents ofrain. The sides of the mountains tore loose and fell onthe town killing 6,600 people and leaving tens of thou-sands of others homeless. Had I been one of the sur-vivors I would have remembered that for a long time.

Yet, illegal but clearcut-logging continues on thosesame upland slopes. Once again this past February,mudslides came to almost the same place, this timekilling nearly 2,000 more.

It seems the roof of a school with over 300 childreninside held fast as the school was buried, leaving a bitof air to breathe. Filipino kids love cell phones. Manytake them to school. There in the dark they "text-ed"messages to parents and friends. Slowly, one by one,the phones stopped sending as rescuers vainly tried toreach them in time. Here at TREES, we will long remember that. Not just

because officials turned a blind eye to the logging butbecause they had no interest in bringing back trees andforests to those barren mountains.

Meanwhile I was working a few islands away to thewest to help plan a program where, again, the moun-tains had been cleared, this time by "slash-and-burn"farming and hunting, while a river goes farther out ofits banks every rainy season. As I explained to theGovernor and her staff, it would require planting near-ly eight million permanent, beneficial trees to undo thedamage to those uplands and river system. I alsoexplained there isn't much time left. In response, shetold me the Province will solve the problem "little-by-little". I said we will continue to help the program butthe problem is growing "big-by-big".

Back in Manila, people are now eating vegetablessprayed with Malathion seven times in one growingseason because the agri-business community finds sell-ing chemicals more profitable that showing people safeways to protect their food crops.Then there is Lake Yojoa in Honduras, a 100,000 acre

watershed where gold is mined using mercury whichruns into the lake. Over-grazing has taken away morethan half the forest cover, and desperately poor fami-lies sell the remaining trees as firewood. The level ofthe lake has dropped more than 40 feet in a generation,while 12 feet of silt covers the bottom. Coming home, I turn on the news to find we still don't

know how to save the city, or the people, of NewOrleans - destroyed in a day because we depend somuch on fossil fuels to run our cars that GlobalWarming has increased ocean temperatures by 2degrees, accounting for the increase in number, andstrength, of hurricanes in recent years. Do really wantto follow the path of the dinosaurs?

But then I remember people like Jorge Betancourt,working night and day in 17 towns trying to save thatlake, and the Peace Corps Volunteers who came longdistances to meet with us in Belize and Honduras. Andthe community leaders who see the need for actionNOW, who are doing all they can to keep their peoplefrom being buried by mudslides.

I also think of you and all our other friends who sogenerously provide them the seeds, the training andplanning support to start projects that show that not allof us want to become extinct.And that's plenty of reason to hope and for continuing

to build your program: helping these many thousandsof people who are determined to give their children afuture, with your help.


Opinion: Extinction Means Forever

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Spring Activities

p. 1 Antique: A RIVER GONE WILD p. 2 News from the Ruppe Centerp. 3 Challenge of Agrofrestry Trainingp. 4 Renaldo Alvarado: BACK WITH A SMILEp. 7 Everywhere I Go, I Will Plant a Treep. 8 Africa Program Grows by 40%p. 11 Annual Report p. 12 Preliminary Financial Statementp. 13 Adam & Anne: Support in Hondurasp. 15 Opinion: Exteinction Means Forever

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We dedicate this issue to the 300 stu-dents who were buried in the Philippinemudslide this past February.

spring 2006 newsletter

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