Through GCFP, our Club annually contributes to Penny Pines which is a reforestation/forest education program. Our donations to Penny Pines stay in Pennsylvania and are used for special projects or to reforest areas in the Allegheny National Forest.  Penny Pines first began after World War II to help reforest our National Parks and cost at first 68 cents to plant trees on one acre; today that has gone up to $68 an acre.

Here is some background: The National Garden Center and the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service formed a partnership to sustain our national and urban forests. Our contributions go to a Penny Pines plantation as part of the costs of replanting replacement trees indigenous to a particular damaged area. Whether by fire or by other natural catastrophe, pine trees and other trees are replaced. Under a conservation agreement, the forest service does the planting, using donations together with federal funds, and provides to the plantation the same protection from fires, insects, and disease given other forested areas. The plantations are a part of the regular national forest reforestation program planted on burned-over and brush-covered areas which are potentially productive timberlands. Planting sites are selected by the supervisor of each national forest. These plantations provide soil protection, watershed protection, soil stabilization, future harvestable timber, as well as beauty and shade for recreation.

https://gardenclub.org/penny-pines