History

TreeLink was established in 1996 with a grant from the USDA Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program on the recommendation of the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council, and a grant from the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation. The purpose of the competitive grant was to create a national urban forestry communications hub. At first TreeLink was a program of TreeUtah, a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit, but by 2002 the program outgrew TreeUtah and TreeLink became a separate and distinct nonprofit organization.

Since its creation, the staff of this nonprofit Internet resource has leveraged support from around the country to expand recognition and respect for the movement and discipline of Urban and Community Forestry.

With growing concerns over population growth, urbanization, pollution, sprawl, habitat fragmentation, and rising energy and health costs, the urban forestry movement resonates, and the sound that people are hearing is harmony. Technology has become critical to share this information faster and farther. TreeLink receives nearly a million hits a month and thousands of unique visitors every day from as many as 70 countries.

TreeLink also created the first international coalition to advocate for Urban and Community Forestry in partnership with the Olympics -- for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games -- bringing together the National Tree Trust, the Arbor Day Foundation, the International Society of Arboriculture, and American Forests to work together for the first time. The coalition also included the White House Millennium Green initiative.

Today TreeLink serves as an information repository and networking center for urban forestry professionals while providing outreach to land agencies, academics, green industry and the general public.