The trees of Beaver County are just one of the features that makes our area home, but did you know that our trees might be in danger?

The best towns have almost a 50% canopy of trees, but in recent years, Beaver has dropped to less than a 20% canopy. We need those trees to provide cooling shade, produce oxygen, mitigate noise, break up wind, and provide important habitat for the ecosystem.

To try and fight this horrible canopy ratio, organizations have tried to replenish our trees.

One organization in particular is Reforest Our Future, a nonprofit group founded by Jeff Karwoski and his dog Forest—a mascot for the organization.

Karwoski actually use to cut down trees in Beaver County—none of the good ones of course, but rather the old rotted ones that might have been a hazard in the area.

Once he got deeper into the business, he realized that other tree services might be taking down more of the good trees than necessary.

“I see the direction we’re going and seeing all these guys cutting the good trees. There needs to be a counterweight to it,” explained Karwoski.

Seeing this problem in the community inspired Karwoski to shift his work from cutting trees down into wanting to plant more trees. With that, Reforest our Future was born.

For an effort like this to thrive, it can’t be done alone. There have to be volunteers who want to help. To do this, Karwoski took a unique approach at getting attraction around the organization. He got his dog involved because who doesn’t love a dog?

Karwoski’s dog, Forest, became not only a mascot for the organization but also the star of his own book series. Karwoski wrote Forest Tales about his dog’s adventures in local parks. Karwoski even takes Forest to schools to read the stories to kids.

Recently, Reforest Our Future has been looking to set up tree patches throughout Beaver County to tackle the growing problem (no pun intended). The tree patches are set up in small enclosed areas with a variety of different native trees.

Two of the tree patches were set up in Brady’s Run Park last spring and this spring by the organization and volunteers.

Reforest Our Future has also applied for a grant from the Community Mitigation Environmental Fund that was created with money from Shell’s facility. With that grant, a larger nursery will be set up in Brady’s Run along with staff and educators to inform the public about the nursery.

Another grant the organization applied for was through Penn State Beaver to set up ten more tree patches throughout our town.

“We’d love to set up these patches in Beaver County in eye-catching places to spread the information along about our native trees and how important they are to our community,” Karwoski stated.

What Reforest Our Future needs now is support. Support can be given through volunteer work through the organization or something just as simple as appreciating the native trees planted in these new patches at Brady’s Run.

If you’re interested in helping with Reforest Our Future, you can visit their website at www.reforestourfuture.org