WVFA eNews Weekly

Well, the State Fair is in their record books and ours, too. We had tens of thousands of visitors, great volunteers at the exhibit (including our Timber & Wood Queen, Allie Cole), and many say our biggest and best exhibit ever - thanks to Dan Abston and the Communications Committee.

See you next at the Forest Festival (October) in Elkins!

Visit https://www.naylornetwork.com/wvf-nwl/articles/?aid=336131&issueID=41982 to view the full article online.

By Susan Lusty

PLT’s partner Zig Zag Zoom has just expanded its Tree Story mobile game to Android and worldwide markets. Now both Android and iOS users in countries all over the world can play the mobile game that plants REAL trees.

Tree Story is a "virtual pet" game for your smartphone, where players need to nurture a tree seedling by feeding, watering, dressing and playing with their virtual tree. When enough virtual trees are fully-grown, Tree Story sponsors plantings in the real world! To date, the game has already planted trees with several PLT schools, including Guadalupe School’s Edible Schoolyard, shown to the right. It’s a great way to get kids thinking about trees, and to plant real trees at the same time!

You may be wondering, why partner with a mobile game?

Visit https://www.naylornetwork.com/wvf-nwl/articles/?aid=335572&issueID=41982 to view the full article online.

The Woodlands Operating Committee (WOC), AFF’s advisory committee on all woodland-related programs including the American Tree Farm System, has been hard at work taking into account the ATFS Network input and shaping the future of ATFS and AFF’s Woodland Program as a whole (includes ATFS, policy, communications, and place-based efforts). As we discussed at this year’s National Leadership Conference, our 75th anniversary next year presents an opportunity for us to look ahead and shape ATFS and AFF’s entire Woodland Program for the future. After input from a range of diverse stakeholders including you, our ATFS volunteers, ATFS landowners, state forestry agency partners, corporations, and conservation partners, the WOC and our Task Force has concluded, as has the AFF Board of Trustees, that a focus on delivering measurable impact, at scale, on key forest benefits (i.e. wood, water, wildlife habitat, other benefits?) from family woodlands, by enabling and engaging family woodland owners, is essential to the success and relevance of ATFS and AFF’s Woodland Program overall.

Visit https://www.naylornetwork.com/wvf-nwl/articles/?aid=336106&issueID=41982 to view the full article online.

The land of forest-covered hills, mountain music and coal has a lesson for restoration: healthy forests require healthy soils.

The forests of Appalachia, a region that extends from southern New York to Georgia, are considered to be among the most diverse temperate deciduous forests in the world, with as many as 30 different tree species growing together. Coal has played an important role in the development of Appalachian culture, but mining for coal has also created a need for restoration in extensive areas of the 13 states that make up the Appalachian region.

Visit https://www.naylornetwork.com/wvf-nwl/articles/?aid=336109&issueID=41982 to view the full article online.