Donations
Penny Pines Reforestation Program
The national forests in California cover some 20 million acres, or about 1/5 of the state. That is equal to an area just slightly larger than the state of South Carolina. Stretching from the Mexican border to Oregon, these forests include a variety of terrain and vegetation types. These areas of great beauty and majestic stature are plagued by divesting problems, such as natural and man-caused fire, pests and disease. These cause vast depletion and destruction of the national forests in California.
After large wildland fires, areas across the forest may need to be restored. As destructive as fires are, disease and insect infestation destroy seven times more forest vegetation annually than fires because forests pests are scattered and not easily detected, so are harder to control.
Over 900,000 acres of the Mendocino National Forest burned in recent years due the Ranch Fire in 2018 and the August Complex in 2020. Given the scale and intensity of these wildland fires, site preparation for reforestation projects can take two to three years before it is safe and possible to plant seedlings. Your donation will help renew the forest with future planting projects in areas that recently burned when it is safe to do so.
In time some land may recover naturally. Penny Pines provides a helping hand. It is a conservation program in which everyone can participate.
In 1941, California's first Penny Pines plantation was sponsored by the San Francisco Sportswomens' Association.
Recognizing the great need to restore these devastated areas, the Association sent their donation to the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in northern California.
Since that contribution, the number of participating groups and individuals has grown each year. They include such organizations as the Garden and Womens' Clubs, Boy and Girl Scouts of America, civic and sportsmens clubs, and many others.
At the start of the program in 1941, seedlings could be produced for about one cent each. Approximately 680 seedlings were used to plant a typical acre. For $68.00, seedlings for ten acres could be purchased. Site preparation and planting costs were met through regular Forest Service appropriations.
The Penny Pines program was so successful that money contributed to purchase seedlings soon far exceeded appropriated funds available for site preparation and for the actual planting job.
In 1964, the original cooperative agreement was rewritten to provide that funds contributed under the Penny Pines program be used for reforestation, rather than solely for purchasing seedlings.
As a result of past forest fires, thousands of acres of potential forest land on the national forests in California are now covered in brush. Once the land is brush-covered, trees grow back slowly--if at all. To accelerate reforestation, brush must be removed, the sites prepared, and seedlings planted.
Over the last 20 years, wildfires have burned an average of 100,000 acres of national forest land in California each year. Fortunately, natural reseeding occurs on some of this burned land, but much of it must be replanted.
The present Forest Service program for replanting brushfields and recently burned areas can only accomplish a small part of what is needed to do the job. Current appropriations allow the planting of only some 14,000 acres a year. At this rate it would take more than 16 years to plant this unproductive land.
Your donation to the Penny Pines Project will help bring new life into Mendocino National Forest!
Download, print and mail in the Penny Pines Donation Form with your contribution.
Contributions must be in multiples of $68 or more. Please make checks payable to: USDA Forest Service. Mail the donation form and check to:
Mendocino National Forest
825 North Humboldt Avenue
Willows, Ca. 95988
Attn: Penny Pines Coordinator
If you have questions about the Mendocino National Forest's Penny Pines Project, please email sm.fs.mendopao@usda.gov.