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.
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