Penny Pines - NGC Digs In To Raise Funds For Replanting Disaster Struck Forests

                 PENNY PINES - NGC DIGS IN TO RAISE FUNDS FOR DISASTER STRUCK FORESTS

Since launching a partnership in 2004 with the United States Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Garden Clubs Inc. and its affiliates across the nation have raised funds on the local and state levels for Penny Pines, which is dedicated to sustaining our national and urban forests.

This conservation effort entails the planting of replacement trees that are indigenous (not only pine trees) to forested areas damaged by insects, fires or natural catastrophes. The plantations provide soil protection, watershed protection, soil stabilization, as well as beauty and shade for recreation.

Penny Pines began in California in 1941 as a statewide conservation program but expanded to all 50 states. Early on, seedlings could be produced for one cent each and approximately 680 seedlings could be planted in a typical acre, with 10 acres of seedlings costing $68. That amount has been retained as a minimum donation through the years. Today, approximately 200 replacement seedlings can be planted with a $68 donation.  

Under the conservation agreement, the U.S. Forest Service does the planting, using your donation together with federal funds and offers the plantation the same protection from fires, insects and disease provided to other forested areas.  

The above three photos show a Penny Pines Youth Plantation Project.  Youth working to replant trees in an area devastated by fire.

Please consider participating in this unique project by contributing $68 (or multiples of $68) to the NGC Penny Pines Program. You may designate an individual, club, organization, or event/theme (Plant America, Arbor Day, National Garden Week, Support Our Troops) or in memory of someone special. Donors will receive an NGC Penny Pines certificate. A donor also may designate the planting of seedlings in a U.S. state or a specific national forest.

Download the donation form on the NGC website, www.gardenclub.org under “Ongoing Projects” and select “Penny Pines.”

Janice Clem

Chairman, Penny Pines

Photos courtesy of San Bernardino National Forest, Calif., United States Forest Service.

Articles and photos reprinted with permission by The National Gardener, Winter 2018.