Help Restore Huntsville's Urban Forest

My neighborhood and city, Huntsville, Alabama, was hit by an outbreak of tornadoes on May 8-9, 2024. No lives were lost and I am not aware of any serious injuries to people. There was extensive property damage though, and hundreds of trees were either destroyed or seriously damaged such that they had to be cut down.

I am the organizer and leader of a group called Friends of Trees-Huntsville. We are doing as much as possible to help preserve and expand the tree population, or urban forest, in our city. One obstacle is that there's not enough awareness among citizens about how important trees are for quality of life and maintenance of a healthy environment.

Our city government makes a significant effort in this regard but it's not enough and not on a par with what some of our neighboring cities do.

Therefore, a primary focus of Friends of Trees is working with and helping city government in its efforts to make Huntsville a more tree-friendly city.

Toward this end we conducted a fundraiser last year which resulted in being able to donate $5,000 for the city to use for additional tree planting.

We are conducting another fund drive this year, with an objective of helping restore losses to the urban tree canopy as a result of the tornadoes. That is, plant more trees.

The purpose of this GoFundMe appeal is to attempt to reach a higher funding level than we had originally set. I am optimistic that a GoFundMe assist would be a motivator to stimulate additional giving by our local donors, so that we can live up to our name Friends of Trees.