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Hurricanes and Trees: It’s Complicated

October 5th, 2017|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments

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By Ian Leahy, Director of Urban Forest Programs

When I took a city government job caring for trees after having run my own business, I thought life in government would be a walk in the park, so to speak. No more payroll to meet, or sleepless nights about finding new clients.

Then the first major storm hit while I was on 24-hour call.

Working on behalf of the citizens of Washington, D.C., I found myself racing through nearly empty city streets at 3:00 a.m., scanning for any trees that might be coming down on us from above in the wet soil and wind. It was a long and stressful night, feeling the weight of the city’s safety on my shoulders.

This was not a one-time occurrence. We were in all-hands-on-deck mode after hurricanes, derechos and ice storms, working day and night to get trees out of streets, off of smashed cars, and sometimes even out of bedrooms. Each step, we scanned intensely with an eye out for downed live power lines.

As the city would become functional again, we would inevitably be inundated with calls from residents to remove perfectly healthy street trees that survived the storm. They saw the damage trees could do and, perhaps understandably, wanted no part of it.

So where do trees fit as a public safety measure in the face of extreme weather?

Trees and Community Resilience

The relationship between trees and storms is a complicated one, as evidenced by images from Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands of entire forests stripped of their leaves overnight.

At first glance, a community could impulsively conclude that trees aren’t worth the hassle, at least outside of parks. But, such a community would be stripping itself of a vast array of benefits, from air quality and reduced urban heat island to improved academic performance in children, reduced hospital recovery times and, yes, even — perhaps especially — stormwater management.

When trees filtering water are removed, time and again massive flooding that otherwise would not have happened on such a scale is unleashed, causing crippling damage to people’s lives and the economy.

Lessons Learned about Wind and Trees

So how do we balance these very real risks with such prolific benefits? The key is to actually double down on and enhance a city’s tree canopy. Scientists at the University of Florida tracked the impacts 10 hurricanes had on the urban forests where they hit, from Andrew that devastated South Florida in 1992 to the infamous Katrina along the Gulf Coast in 2005.

While they found that increased wind speed did increase the likelihood that trees would fail, other factors significantly impacted the degree of damage to a city’s tree canopy during a hurricane:

  • Trees in groups survive wind better than individuals
  • Some species resist wind better than others
  • Trees that lose their leaves during a hurricane are not necessarily dead
  • Better and deeper soils mean fewer tree failures
  • Native trees survive better
  • Older and unhealthy trees are more likely to be damaged
  • Well-pruned trees survive hurricanes better

Tree damage in South Florida from Hurricane Irma in 2017. Credit: Jim Mullhaupt

All of this demonstrates the life, infrastructure, and economy-saving importance of cities investing adequately in an urban forestry program. This includes hiring technical expertise and giving forestry a seat at the planning table when decisions are made about every aspect of the city’s built environment.

While risk of tree failure can never be completely eliminated, going all-in with a truly comprehensive urban forestry program would reduce risk significantly by:

  • Developing and implementing a comprehensive urban forestry plan
  • Conducting structural pruning for both young and mature trees
  • Planting more wind- and salt-resistant species
  • Selecting the right species and designing the right place, with adequate soil volume
  • Planting high-quality trees with central leaders and good structure
  • Assembling an urban forestry strike team to deploy in the wake of disasters

Vibrant Cities Lab

To help communities of any size build such a comprehensive urban forestry program, American Forests, the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) and the U.S. Forest Service recently launched the Vibrant Cities Lab. This free online hub is a unique portal of urban forestry research and expertise to help city managers and other professions integrate trees into their decision-making processes.

The Vibrant Cities Lab includes a step-by-step guide so that any community can assess where they currently are and access the technical resources necessary to enhance their urban forestry capacity. The site synthesizes the latest research showing impacts trees have, provides best practices from communities of all sizes, and curates nearly 500 resources, such as technical guides, ordinances and sample urban forestry plans.

Disaster ReLeaf Funds in Miami and Houston

American Forests has also been working for several years in Miami and Houston, two cities recently devastated by hurricanes, to help develop just this kind of holistic urban forestry capacity that can build community resilience. With the support of Bank of America, Alliance Data, Coca-Cola, Bacardi and the U.S. Forest Service, among others, our award-winning Community ReLeaf program works in metro areas nationwide to increase local capacity through a comprehensive theory of change model:

While these partnerships in Houston and Miami have looked to build a strong and expanded tree canopy for the future, focused on underserved areas, the damage inflicted on each city’s trees by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have created new and urgent work that complicates the way forward. We need to update our data and planning on local tree canopy, identify repair and restoration needs, and incorporate lessons learned from these storms to identify how trees can be used to prepare for future events.

To help fund this new work with our partners, American Forests has launched a Disaster ReLeaf Fund for each city. We are also expanding our planting and maintenance efforts so both Miami and Houston can recover their beneficial tree canopy as quickly as possible.

Whether in a large metro area or a small town, proactive management can help your community’s trees not only better withstand hurricanes, but also become an asset for filtering water and reducing impervious surfaces at a time when those functions are most desperately needed.

The post Hurricanes and Trees: It’s Complicated appeared first on American Forests.

1.5ºC: Geophysically impossible or not?

Guest commentary by Ben Sanderson

Millar et al’s recent paper in Nature Geoscience has provoked a lot of lively discussion, with the authors of the original paper releasing a statement to clarify that there paper did not suggest that “action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is no longer urgent“, rather that 1.5ºC (above the pre-industrial) is not “geophysically impossible”.

The range of post-2014 allowable emissions for a 66% chance of not passing 1.5ºC in Millar et al of 200-240GtC implies that the planet would exceed the threshold after 2030 at current emissions levels, compared with the AR5 analysis which would imply most likely exceedance before 2020. Assuming the Millar numbers are correct changes 1.5ºC from fantasy to merely very difficult.

But is this statement overconfident? Last week’s post on Realclimate raised a couple of issues which imply that both the choice of observational dataset and the chosen pre-industrial baseline period can influence the conclusion of how much warming the Earth has experienced to date. Here, I consider three aspects of the analysis – and assess how they influence the conclusions of the study.


Figure 1: (a) shows temperature change in the CMIP5 simulations relative to observed temperature products. Grey regions show model range under historical and RCP8.5 forcing relative to a 1900-1940 baseline. Right-hand axis shows temperatures relative to 1861-1880 (offset using HadCRUT4 temperature difference). (b) shows temperature change as a function of cumulative emissions. Black solid line shows the CMIP5 historical mean, and black dashed is the RCP8.5 projection. Colored lines represent regression reconstructions as in Otto (2015) using observational temperatures from HadCRUT4 and GISTEMP, with cumulative emissions from the Global Carbon Project. Colored points show individual years from observations.

The choice of temperature data

We can illustrate how these effects might influence the Millar analysis by repeating the calculation with alternative temperature data. Their approach requires an estimate of the forced global mean temperature in a given year (excluding any natural variability), which are derived from Otto et al (2015), who employ a regression approach to reconstruct a prediction of global mean temperatures as a function of anthropogenic and natural forcing agents. In Fig. 1(a), we apply the Otto approach to data from GISTEMP as well as the HadCRUT4 product used in the original paper – again using data up to 2014. Although the HadCRUT4 forced Otto-style reconstruction suggests 2014 temperatures were less than the 25th percentile of the CMIP5 distribution, following the same procedure with GISTEMP yields 2014 temperatures of 1.08K – corresponding to the 58th percentile of the CMIP5 distribution.

This draws into question the justification for changing the baseline for the cumulative emissions analysis, given it quickly becomes apparent is that the use of a different dataset can undermine the conclusion that present day temperatures lie outside of the model distribution. Fig. 1(b) shows that the anomaly between observations and the CMIP5 mean temperature response to cumulative emissions is halved by repeating the Millar analysis with the GISTEMP product instead of HadCRUT.

The role of internal variability

There is also an important question of the degree to which internal variability can influence the attributable temperature change, given that the Millar result is contingent on knowing what the forced temperature response of the system is. We apply the approach to the CESM Large Ensemble, a 40-member initial condition ensemble of historical and future climate simulations where ensemble members differ only in their realization of natural variability. Although all models have identical forcing and model configuration, Fig 2(a) shows the range of estimated forced warming in 2014 in the CESM model by the Otto approach varies from 0.68-0.94K (almost as much as the actual 2005-2014 decadal average temperature itself in the CESM ensemble), and there is a strong correlation between inferred forced warming in 2014 and the global mean temperatures in the preceding decade, suggesting that the unforced estimate in the Otto approach can be strongly influenced by temperatures in the preceding decade.


Figure 2: (a) Temperatures of reconstructed global mean temperature in 2014 for the CESM large ensemble following the Otto (2015) regression methodology, plotted as a function of average global mean temperature in the years 2005-2014. (b) correlation between mean grid-point temperatures in 2005-2014 and reconstructed global mean temperature in 2014, ellipses show regions proposed for Pacific Climate Index. (c) CESM large ensemble reconstructed global mean temperature in 2014 as a function of Pacific Climate Index. Vertical lines show index values for observations in period 2005-2014 (solid) and historical (dashed).
In order to assess how this potential bias might have been manifested in the historical record, we construct an index of this pattern using regions of strong positive and negative correlation to the inferred forced warming. Fig 2(b) shows the correlation between inferred forced 2014 temperature and 2005-2014 temperatures, showing a pattern reminiscent of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation, a leading mode of unforced variability. The warming estimate is positively correlated with central Pacific temperatures, and negatively correlated with South Pacific temperatures. An index of the difference between these regions is shown in Fig. 1(c) for observations and models. Both HadCRUT and GISTEMP suggest strongly negative index values for the period 2005-2014, suggesting a potential cold bias in the warming estimate due to natural variability of 0.1˚C (with 5-95% values of 0.05-0.15˚C).

In short, irrespective of what observational dataset was used – it’s likely that an estimate of forced response made in 2014 would be biased cold, which on its own would translate to an overestimate of the available budget of about 40GtC.

The low CMIP5 compatible emissions

Millar’s paper also points out that the discrepancy between the CMIP5 ensemble and the observations arises not only due to temperature, but also because cumulative emissions were greater in the real world than the mean CMIP5 model in 2014. But this only translates to a justifiable increase in the emissions budget if the real world is demonstrably off the CMIP5 cumulative emissions/temperature line.   By some estimates, cumulative emissions in 2014 might be higher than the models simply be because emissions were consistently above the RCP range between 2005-2014. In other words – by 2014 we’d used more of the carbon budget than any of the RCPs had anticipated and if we are not confident that the real world is cooler than the models at this level of cumulative emissions, this means that available emissions for 1.5 degrees should decrease proportionately.

A key point to note is that, by resetting the cumulative emissions baseline, the Millar et al available emissions budget is insensitive to the actual cumulative emissions to date. The unforced temperature estimate is used as a proxy for what cumulative emissions should be given the current level of warming. This is only justified if we are confident that we know the current unforced temperature more accurately than we know the current cumulative emissions. However, the combined evidence of the influence of natural variability on the unforced temperature estimate, the disagreement between different observational datasets on warming level, and the uncertainty introduced by an uncertain pre-industrial temperature baseline means that we can’t be confident as the Millar paper suggests on what the current level of warming is, and that the balance of evidence suggests that the Otto warming estimate may be biased cold. If this is right, the Millar available cumulative emissions budget would be biased high.

So, is it appropriate to say that 1.5ºC is geophysically possible? Perhaps plausible would be a better word. Depending on which temperature dataset we choose, the TEB for 1.5 degrees may already be exceeded. Although it would certainly be useful to know what the underlying climate attractor of the Earth system is, any estimate we produce is subject to error.

We ultimately face a question of what we trust more: our estimate of our cumulative emissions to date combined with our full knowledge of how much warming that might imply, or an estimate of how warm the system was in 2014 which is subject to error due to observational uncertainty and natural variability. Changing the baseline for warming and cumulative emissions is effectively a bias correction, a statement that models have simulated the past sufficiently poorly that they warrant bias correction which allows for emissions to date to be swept under the carpet. Alternatively, we trust the cumulative emissions number and treat the models as full proxies for reality, as was done in AR5, which would tell us that the emissions to date have already brought us to the brink of exceedance of the 1.5 degree threshold.


Methods


For Figure 1, global mean temperatures are plotted from the HadCRUT4 and GISTEMP products relative to a 1900-1940 baseline, together with global mean temperatures from 81 available simulations in the CMIP5 archive, also relative to the 1900-1940 baseline, where all available ensemble members are taken for each model. In each year from 1900-2016, the 5th,25th,75th and 95th percentiles of the CMIP5 distribution are plotted. Figure 1(b) the CMIP5 cumulative emissions and temperature data used are identical to those in AR5 for the historical and RCP8.5 trajectories. Observational data is from GISTEMP and HadCRUT4 global mean products, and annual cumulative emission data is replicated from the Global Carbon Project. Regression analyses are performed as in Otto (2015), using natural and anthropogenic forcing timeseries (historical and the RCP8.5 scenario) with a regression constructed using data from 1850-2016 (for HadCRUT4), and from 1880-2016 (for GISTEMP).

Figure 2 uses data from the CESM large ensemble, where the Otto (2015) analysis is applied to each ensemble member. Regressions are performed using data from years 1850-2014 for each member of the archive, to replicate the years used in the Otto (2015) analysis. Figure 2(a) shows the regression reconstructed temperature for 2014 plotted as a function of model temperatures in the preceding decade (2005-2014). Figure 2(b) shows the correlation pattern of 2005-2014 temperatures with the 2014 regression reconstruction in the CESM Large Ensemble. Ellipses are constructed to approximately highlight regions of high positive and negative correlation in the pattern. A central Pacific ellipse is centered on 2N,212E, while a South Pacific ellipse is centered on 34S,220E. Figure 2(c) employs a Pacific Climate Index specific to this analysis, constructed using the difference of mean annual temperatures in the years 2005-2014 in the two ellipses in Figure 2(b) (central Pacific minus south Pacific region), showing reconstructed 2014 regression temperatures as a function of the index for each member of the CESM Large Ensemble. A linear regression was computed to predict 2014 Otto (2015) forced temperatures as a function of the Pacific Climate Index. Dashed lines show the 5th and 95th percentile uncertainty in the regression coefficients. The same index is then calculated for the 2005-2014 period and the historical 1880-2000 period in the HadCRUT4 and GISTEMP datasets.

…the Harde they fall.

Back in February we highlighted an obviously wrong paper by Harde which purported to scrutinize the carbon cycle. Well, thanks to a crowd sourced effort which we helped instigate, a comprehensive scrutiny of those claims has just been published. Lead by Peter Köhler, this included scientists from multiple disciplines working together to clearly report on the mistaken assumptions in the Harde paper.

The comment is excellent, and so should be well regarded, but the fact that it is a comment means that the effort will likely be sorely underappreciated. Part of problem is the long time for the process (almost 8 months) which means that the nonsense is mostly forgotten about by the time the comments are published. We’ve discussed trying to speed up and improve the process by having a specialized journal for comments and replications but really the problem here is the low quality of peer review and editorial supervision that allows these pre-rebunked papers to appear in the first place.

GPC is not the only (nor the worst) culprit for this kind of nonsense – indeed we just noticed a bunch of astrology papers in the International Journal of Heat and Technology (by Nicola Scatetta [natch]). It does seem to demonstrate that truly you can indeed publish anything somewhere.

References


  1. P. Köhler, J. Hauck, C. Völker, D.A. Wolf-Gladrow, M. Butzin, J.B. Halpern, K. Rice, and R.E. Zeebe, “Comment on “ Scrutinizing the carbon cycle and CO 2 residence time in the atmosphere ” by H. Harde”, Global and Planetary Change, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2017.09.015

The Science Behind Fall Foliage

By Dylan Stuntz, American Forests

It’s officially been fall for a little more than a week, and for anyone who lives near a deciduous tree — one that sheds its leaves in the fall — this means some beautiful sights are about to occur. But why do trees go through these changes? There’s a complex chemical process that goes on inside every deciduous tree, and maybe understanding it can give you even more appreciation for such a stunning sight.

To understand why leaves are the color they are, you first need to become familiar with the inside of a leaf. Leaves get their green color from a chemical called chlorophyll, which helps the tree take in sunlight. The tree uses the sunlight in a process called photosynthesis, which is how the tree eats, so to speak. It uses the sunlight to break down carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H20) it absorbs, turning the CO2 and H20 into oxygen, which gets expelled, and glucose, which the tree consumes for energy.

If you imagine a tree as a factory, then the leaves are seasonal workers. They do their job when resources are coming into the factory (sunlight, water, carbon dioxide), but when resources stop coming in, there’s not much for the workers to do, so the tree sends them a pink slip. Leaves require energy from the tree, so like any good factory, the tree engages in a cost-benefit analysis. When the days become shorter, the tree no longer wants to waste energy on leaves. This starts the internal chemical process that creates fall foliage.

The change in leaf coloration is dependent on the amount of sunlight that the tree takes in. As the seasons change, the days get shorter and the night get longer. Eventually, when the nights reach a certain length, chemical processes in the tree will start to block off the connection between the tree and the individual leaves, by creating a corky layer of cells known as the abscission layer. This layer is to protect the branch when it inevitably becomes exposed to the open air, once the leaf has fallen. The abscission layer protects the tree, but it also disrupts the flow of nutrients and chemicals that move from the branch to the leaf and back. Chlorophyll breaks down when exposed to sunlight, so as a result it needs to be constantly replaced. The abscission layer interrupts this renewal process, so as a result once the chlorophyll starts to fade, other colors start to emerge.

Two chemicals are responsible for the fall coloration of leaves. Carotenoids create orange and yellow pigments, and anthocyanins create shades of red and purple. The carotenoids are present in the leaf all summer long, but they’re masked by the green of the chlorophyll. As soon as the chlorophyll renewal is halted, the green begins to fade and the vibrant fall colors appear. The second chemical, anthocyanin, forms as a result of the glucose formed by the remaining, faded chlorophyll. The glucose then becomes trapped in the leaf by the abscission layer, resulting in the formation of anthocyanin.

The colors of a particular tree are a result of the carotenoids and the anthocyanins reacting to each other in different amounts, in combination with any chlorophyll left. The formation of these chemicals and the amount of each of them are dependent on temperature, moisture and sunlight, so every foliage season is unique, because every season the chemical balance found inside the leaf changes.

The anthocyanin formed in the right-hand part of this leaf because it was exposed to sunlight, but the left side was probably in shade, so the carotenoids caused it to stay yellow.

Carotenoids and anthocyanins also break down after being exposed to sunlight. If a leaf manages to stay on the branch after the chemical processes have broken down, you would see the bright colors fade until it would finally be brown, a result of a final chemical, tannin. Tannins are found in the membranes of the cells that make up the leaves, so they never fade, which is why brown is the final color present in late autumn.

In these leaves, the tannins are interacting with the carotenoids and anthocyanins to create subtle, stunning combinations.

So when you go to snap a picture of copper-colored leaves for your Instagram, take a minute to appreciate the intricate chemical interactions going on!

The post The Science Behind Fall Foliage appeared first on American Forests.

Forest Digest: Week of September 25, 2017

October 1st, 2017|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

Find out the latest in forest news!

World’s Longest-Living Trees Crowded Out by Climate Change – VOA News

Bristlecone pines can live up to 5,000 years, but researchers are worried about climate change’s effect on these old giants. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, found that a similar tree species, the limber pine is taking key spots on mountainsides where the bristlecone pine would normally grow. Limber pine normally grows at lower elevations, but rising temperatures have encouraged it to move up to take over bristlecone pine habitats.

One of the world’s most popular trees arose near the Arctic Circle — Science Magazine

DNA analysis by the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Ill., has found that the common ancestor for North American oaks originated much farther north than previously thought. Most botanists had hypothesized that oak trees developed in the tropics, and then spread northward, but after looking at over 10,000 pieces of DNA from over 300 species of oak, researchers found that the ancestor for modern oaks arose 45 million years ago in what is now northern Canada.

Funding Trees for Health — Global Solutions (The Nature Conservancy)

A study by The Nature Conservancy has found that planting urban trees is one of the most cost-effective solutions to increasing the health and life expectancy for urban residents. The study looks at critical health outcomes and identifies major barriers to be overcome to allow cities to realize the potential urban forestry.

Funding Trees for Health — PBS EONS

The coal we burn today is called a fossil fuel, but what fossils did it come from? Three hundred million years ago, it was a plant known as a “scale tree,” a seedless tree living during the Carboniferous period. At its peak, this tree made up over half of the biomass in North America and Europe. The species died out about 272 million years ago, but millions of years of exposure to heat and pressure gradually turned all that biomass into coal.

Dead mangroves shut down carbon cycle — Cosmos Magazine

Mangroves are effective at fighting climate change, but it’s been found that mangrove dieback can actually contribute to climate change. That’s the result of a study done by Southern Cross University in Melbourne, after studying a massive dieback of mangroves that occurred in 2015. Researchers found a variety of factors contributed to the mangrove dieback, low rainfall, high temperatures and low sea levels as a result of El Niño.

Brazil Backs Off Controversial Plan to Open Amazon Forest to Mining — EcoWatch

The Brazilian government has publicized that it will no longer move forward on a plan to allow mining in a protected Amazon reserve. The reserve is larger than Switzerland and believed to hold large deposits of gold, manganese, iron and copper. Brazil’s president announced the decree to open up mining last month. A few days after it was announced, the courts suspended the decree, and on Sept. 25 the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) announced it would not move forward on the president’s decree. However, the MME did put out a statement indicating that they would be receptive to other proposals in the future, saying “the country needs to grow and generate jobs, attract investment to the mining sector and even tap the economic potential of the region.”

The post Forest Digest: Week of September 25, 2017 appeared first on American Forests.

The Tunes of Trees

September 28th, 2017|Tags: , |0 Comments

By Dylan Stuntz, American Forests

Headphones are so ubiquitous today, it’s common to see people walking by with earbuds in, going about their days listening to their favorite music or the latest podcast. If you fall into that camp, consider disconnecting the next time you venture outside, because there are a variety of mental, physical and social benefits to just listening to the sounds of the natural world.

YOU’LL BE LESS STRESSED

Researchers recently conducted a study in which participants listened to silence, Mozart and nature sounds, while recording self-reported stress levels, pulse rate and muscle tension. They found that after just seven minutes of nature sounds, participants reported lower stress levels along with a measurable decrease in muscle tension and pulse rate. Surely you can find seven minute out of your day!

Rather than spend seven minutes on “Hey Jude”, next time consider listening to a different type of beetle.

Another study was conducted measuring self-reported stress and physical stress symptoms after doing difficult arithmetic problems, and found similar results. Participants listening to nature calmed down quicker than those listening to a variety of other sounds. The next time you find yourself stymied by a difficult problem? Go take a walk in a natural setting and let the sounds wash over you — it may help you calm down both mentally and physically.

IT CAN HELP YOU PAY ATTENTION

In a similar vein, scientists at Brighton and Sussex Medical School measured brain activity while listening to nature sounds, and they found an increase in brain activity associated with attention span. A different study found that birdsong was reported as the most effective sound to restore attention. It’s been found that nature sounds can help reduce time needed to recover from “attention fatigue,” which refers to the mental exhaustion that happens when you’ve been focused on one task for too long. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, exhausted or just simply unable to focus, a bit of time in nature can work wonders.

IT CONNECTS YOU WITH THE NATURAL WORLD

No one rocks quite like this robin!

Other than the health benefits, there’s also the untold benefit of simply being present in nature and aware of all the life around you. There’s a subtle piece of music being conducted every day, and you can hear it with the wind in the trees, the babbling of a brook or the melody of a songbird. To be outside and hear such a unique symphony, which only exits in that specific moment in time, there’s something magical about that. Your playlist won’t go anywhere, but to just take a walk in the woods and truly listen, that’s a playlist that can never be found anywhere else.

There’s music found outside that calms you down, makes you more attentive and plays 24/7. It doesn’t require a subscription, won’t deplete your phone battery and can be found almost anywhere. All you need to do is listen.

The post The Tunes of Trees appeared first on American Forests.

Digital Marketing Intern

The Digital Marketing Intern’s main responsibilities will be to assist with research, content and scheduling for American Forests’ social media channels, as well as content development and management for our website.

The Communications Department is also responsible for all publicity activities related to the organization, as well as creating marketing materials, such as brochures, online videos and print and web PSAs. Interns in this department will have the opportunity to assist on projects related to all of these items.

Job Description

  • Perform daily report of top content.
  • Assist in developing content calendars, drafting and scheduling posts.
  • Support analytics tasks, including competitor and industry research.
  • Conduct photo research for use on platforms; edit images for various platforms.
  • Perform internal platform audits and make suggestions for content.
  • Assist with strategy and planning of web projects.
  • Support content development through web copy.
  • Analyze website and contribute suggestions for structure, content, strategy, etc.
  • Support other Marketing and Communications projects as needed.

 

Requirements

Candidates must be currently attending an accredited four-year college or university, preferably enrolled in a communications/public relations, journalism, marketing or English program. American Forests internships are unpaid and available year-round to students receiving academic credit. While unpaid, American Forests’ internships are an opportunity to receive academic credit while gaining experience in the nonprofit environment, knowledge of conservation issues and programs, and by serving a key role in the organization’s communications strategy.

Qualifications

  • Strong writing, grammar and editing skills
  • Experience with developing content for social media required
  • Familiarity with various content management and analytics systems, esp. Hootsuite and WordPress
  • Knowledge or proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite or similar design skills a plus
  • Basic HTML skills a plus
  • Interest in working for a nonprofit
  • Independent worker
  • Organized, deadline-oriented and creative

 

To Apply

We are currently accepting applicants for the fall 2017 and spring 2018 terms. To apply for this internship, please send a cover letter, résumé and two examples of social media/marketing work to Emily Barber, Marketing Manager, at ebarber@americanforests.org. The position will remain open until filled.

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Marketing & Development Intern

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The Development Department is comprised of three branches: individual giving, major gifts, and corporate giving. The department supports American Forests’ mission and vision through a variety of fundraising activities including direct mail appeals, cause marketing, and individual donor and corporate partner prospecting. The Marketing & Development Intern plays a key role in helping the organization reach its fundraising goals by supporting each team’s unique marketing needs. Through their work with staff within the department and across the organization, the intern will have the opportunity to assist the nation’s oldest national conservation nonprofit in making an impact on critical forest ecosystems worldwide.

Job Description

  • Assist the Director of Corporate Giving and Director of Major Gifts in cultivating key prospects through research, preparation of communication pieces and implementation of the department’s marketing plan.
  • Research corporate and individual donor prospects and developing tailored fundraising marketing pitches.
  • Prepare detailed reports including giving history, relationships and additional fundraising materials for corporate and individual donor visits.
  • Work directly with a variety of corporate partners, cultivating their relationship with American Forests through personalized communications pieces and other stewardship activities.
  • Attend educational fairs and events; educate and answer questions from the public about the organization.
  • Develop and execute in-house marketing campaigns, including digital e-mail appeals, newsletters, and print materials.
  • Offer ideas and insight into improving individual and corporate prospect outreach and marketing efforts.
  • Administrative duties as assigned.

Requirements

Candidates must be currently attending an accredited four-year college or university, preferably enrolled in a communications/public relations, journalism, marketing or English program. American Forests internships are unpaid and available year-round to students receiving academic credit. While unpaid, American Forests’ internships are an opportunity to receive academic credit while gaining experience in the nonprofit fundraising environment, knowledge of conservation issues and programs, and by serving a key role in the organization’s strategic fundraising plan.

Qualifications

  • Detail-oriented with strong grammar and editing skills
  • Strong research skills
  • Excellent customer service
  • Highly organized with strong verbal and written communication skills
  • Strong critical thinking skills
  • Ability to work independently, without supervision
  • Must be able to communicate in a professional manner with donors and fellow staff
  • Proficient using Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook
  • Business or humanities background, or nonprofit interest, a plus
  • Interest in development, marketing, fundraising or conservation a plus

To Apply

We are currently accepting applicants for the fall 2017 and spring 2018 terms. To apply for this internship, please send a cover letter and résumé to Ellie Parrish, Manager of Development, at eparrish@americanforests.org. The position will remain open until filled.

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Forest Digest: Week of September 18, 2017

September 24th, 2017|Tags: , , |0 Comments

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Find out the latest in forest news!

Forest loss may lead to more hurricanes, scientists warn – CIFOR

“The world’s standing forests may be protecting continents against cyclonic storms, such as hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones,” a new report by the Center for International Forestry Research suggests. A new theory argues that vegetation and tree cover may influence rainfall, and reduce the intensity and frequency of tornadoes, droughts and floods.

Irma Struck Down South Florida’s Tallest Tree — Miami New Times

An 84-year-old korina tree had survived being shot with a .22 caliber bullet, struck by lighting and damage from Hurricane Wilma, but Hurricane Irma proved to be too much for the tallest tree in Broward County. At 134 feet tall, it was certified as a Florida Champion Tree by the Florida Forest Service in 2016. No one was hurt when the tree came down, but part of Florida’s forestry history has been lost.

Study: New England Loses 65 Acres of Forest per Day to Development — Vermont Public Radio

Researchers at Wildlands & Woodlands, a Harvard University forestry research group, have found that the six New England states are losing forested land at an alarming rate. “It’s a drip, drip, drip, and it amounts to 24,000 acres a year,” says Robert Perschel, one of the report’s authors.

When residents take charge of their rainforests, fewer trees die — The Ohio State University

One effective way to preserve the rainforest is to engage in what’s called “community forest concessions,” granting property and management rights to local residents, researchers at the Ohio State University have found. By granting community members a direct interest in forests in their own backyard, rates of deforestation slowed dramatically compared to areas managed by nonresidents.

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