PLANTING THE SEEDS

With your help, we can dispel the myths, educate and inspire kids about the value of sustainable forestry, why choosing wood products over alternatives is smart, and the benefits of a career in the hardwood and softwood industry.

Please join us for the 2025 Back-to-School Kit Drive!

• Make your tax deductible donation today.
• Help us reach our goal of raising $30,000

CREATING A HEALTHIER FUTURE ONE KIT AT A TIME
Each signature Truth About Trees Kit contains science-based curriculum lessons, activities, wood rulers and pencils, stickers, coloring book, storybook, video, song, plantable pencil, and loads of inspiration to help teachers and kids become #exTREEmelysmart. This cultivates a healthier future for them, our industry, and and planet.

Exciting news!! This year your dollars go 3X as far, thanks to the generosity and support of Hammermill and Pennsylvania Lumbermen’s Mutual Insurance.

Free resources teachers need and 50,000 kids become #exTREEmelysmart!

WHY THIS MATTERS

Trees are our world’s most renewable and plentiful resource; yet Hardwood consumption is down by more than 54% in the last 25 years

• More than 1.7 billion trees are planted in the U.S. annually
• Every year since the 1940s, total forest growth in North America has exceeded the amount harvested.
• Using wood in construction and other applications, like furniture, helps mitigate climate change by storing carbon that would otherwise be released back into the atmosphere.
• North American forests are among the best managed in the world.
• One kilogram of wood sourced from standing timber requires 1/17 as much energy as plastic and 1/7 as much energy as steel from iron.
• North American forests store a significant amount of carbon annually, with the U.S.’ forests alone sequestering about 800 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (roughly 12% of the U.S. annual emissions).
• Agriculture, logging and forestry have the highest levels of self-reported happiness — and lowest levels of self-reported stress; yet the industry is facing a massive skills gap.