To protect the necessities of life and a healthy environment where people can survive and thrive, the Arbor Day Foundation aims to plant millions of trees every year. • To address climate change and mitigate the risk of storms becoming more and more catastrophic, 100 million trees planted over the next five years, for example, will sequester 8 million tons of carbon, the equivalent of taking 6. 2 million cars off the road for year. • To ensure people have abundant, healthy drinking water, those 100 million trees will intercept 7. 1 billion cubic meters of avoided storm-water runoff, the equivalent of filling the water bottle of every person on Earth every day for five years. • For clean, fresh air to breathe and to reduce respiratory diseases, those million trees will absorb 578,000 tons of chemical air pollution, enough gaseous air pollution to fill 70,000 Goodyear blimps. • To lift entire communities out of poverty, the Foundation aims to continue to support preservation, sustainable agroforestry, and meaningful employment in tree nursery operations and reforestation efforts in tropical rain forests across the globe. According to the BBC, damage to forests, rivers, and marine life through deforestation will reduce the GDP by as much as 40-50 percent in countries where the poorest billion people live and depend on forest and natural ecosystems to survive. • With the increasing urbanization of society that puts people face to face with dangerously hot, air-polluted cities, the Foundation's community-improvement Tree City USA program, an urban forestry framework in 3,900 towns and cities where 148 million people live, will help ensure that there are abundant trees to protect those people. • To ensure that there is effective collaboration, the Foundation will continue to operate Arbor Day Farm, a 260-acre National Historic Landmark, as a worldwide conference destination for conservation and education organizations, professional associations, government agencies, and public and private sustainability leaders to convene, collaborate, and share best practices in solving global conservation issues. • And to ensure that the world has future tree planters, the Foundation aims to grow its network of nearly 400 Tree Campus USA colleges and universities and provide a daily connection to nature for thousands of young children through its Nature Explore outdoor classroom program.

The Foundation will position itself as a leader in creating worldwide recognition and use of trees as a solution to global issues including air quality, healthy drinking water, a climate that is tolerable, personal health and well-being, habitat, energy savings, poverty, and hunger. Increased outreach via all communication channels, being present and a leading participant in national and international dialog about reforestation, conservation, and the environment for societal issues, along with broadening and deepening our networks of corporate and programmatic partners are key strategies for creating this worldwide recognition and use of trees as a solution. At its core, the Arbor Day Foundation has strength in networks and partnerships. The Foundation aims to strengthen and expand its base of a million members and its networks of long-standing government, public, private, corporate, professional, and nonprofit partnerships around the globe. The Foundation will leverage its conservation and education programs through its networks of programmatic partners, including: • Reforestation and habitat restoration through federal and state agencies and government and NGO partners internationally; • Tree City USA community improvement programs through its network of 3,900 recognized Tree City USA municipalities and through federal and state agency coordinators; • Community Tree Recovery for disaster recovery through state, municipal, private, public, and nonprofit partners; • Planting Energy-Saving Trees through partnerships with utility companies nationwide; • Engaging college and university students in campus and community improvement through tree planting and care service learning; • Collaborating with our network of local nonprofit tree planting organizations, the Alliance for Community Trees program, to improve the cities and towns where they live; • And with unique access to private property, having millions of trees planted every year in Foundation members' yards and neighborhoods.

With a million members and supporters and the Foundation's growing network of programmatic and corporate partners across the globe, the Arbor Day Foundation has planted and distributed more than 300 million trees since founded in 1972. The positive impact the Foundation has on the environment and on people's lives continues to grow…consistently. Today, some 20 million Foundation trees are planted every year in forests and delivered into the hands of members, homeowners, and people recovering from natural disasters globally. Those trees are the equivalent of planting all the trees in New York's Central Park every 12 hours every single day. Through the framework of the Foundation's recognition programs, more than $1. 5 billion is invested annually in urban forestry with an estimated return of up to $6 billion in environmental benefits to towns and cities serving more than 143 million people. And Foundation programs have expanded international reach to 27 countries to date: replanting forests, saving threatened rain forests, restoring critical wildlife habitat, and creating meaningful jobs to lift thousands of families out of poverty. The organization is poised and compelled to accomplish exponential growth of these programs.

Research universally shows quantifiable benefits of trees…on water quality, air quality, carbon sequestration, energy savings, human health, and other environmental, economic, and societal benefits. More trees…a lot more trees…are needed. Success will be measured by exponential growth in the number of trees planted, the direct positive impact of where and why those trees were planted, and the number of people inspired and engaged to plant them.

The Arbor Day Foundation is in its fifth decade of inspiring people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees with some 300 million trees planted and distributed so far. Planting trees is core to the Arbor Day Foundation. It's what the Foundation has always done. In realizing its vision of being a trusted leader in creating worldwide recognition and use of trees as a solution to global issues, it has become clear that its stewardship programs have a great influence on people. Trees change people's lives. Trees are essential to life itself. There must be clean air to breathe and healthy water to drink. There are no substitutes. People need a climate that is tolerable. They need communities that ensure their personal health and well-being. These are global issues that demand a global response, at an unprecedented scale. The Foundation's base of a million members, supporters, and partners coupled with consistent growth in programmatic impact, positions it as stronger than ever. With its continuous growth in tree-planting across America, and its recent expansion to tree-planting and conservation work in 27 countries across the globe, the Foundation is poised to grow its positive impact on the environment and on people's lives exponentially…because the world needs it.