A program of Keep Western New York Beautiful Welcome Re-Tree WNY was established on November 3, 2006 by a group of about 40 Western New York residents who saw first-hand the devastation done to our beautiful Western New York living resource -- our trees -- and decided to take action to re-forest every public area that was destroyed by the freak October 12-13 snowstorm. read more about us... CLICK HERE FOR PLANTING SCHEDULE News WE'RE PLANTING! There are 30 City of Buffalo Block Clubs/Community Organizations signed-up to start planting on May 3, 2008. That's the big start to our "spring dig". We have a record 16 storm affected towns and municipalities planting starting that day, too. If you want to help in any of these, click here to sign up. A major planting site will be around the Hamlin Park neighborhood of Buffalo (near Canisius Colege)where about 200 trees are going in. If you live near here (or can come and help), we could really use you! Come to school #74 Hamlin Park Elementary (126 Donaldson Rd. Buffalo, NY 14208) at 8:30am on Saturday, May 3rd and we'll get you planting. Thanks to National Grid for the generous assistance for planting in this and other locations. RE-TREE WNY WINS NATIONAL AWARD! The National Arbor Day Foundation has just announced that Re-Tree WNY and the City of Buffalo has won the "Project Award". This is a great honor we share with the dozens of selfless block club and community organizations that have helped us Re-Tree Buffalo. The award will be given in Nebraska City, Nebraska on Arbor Day (April 25, 2008). Re-TREE WNY PLANTS NEARLY 2,000 TREES IN NOVEMBER, 2007 PLANTING! Weekends in November drew several hundred Re-Tree-WNYers to the streets (Congressman Brian Higgins with U.B. Students pictured left) and parks to plant nearly 2,000 trees in the largest reforestation to-date following the October, 2006 storm. Over 60 block clubs in the City of Buffalo received trees as well as the towns of Amherst, Tonawanda, Clarence, and Alden. Those were the areas that were ready for the bare root trees furnished by Re-Tree WNY. We provided a total of 70 different species for our volunteers to plant. See photos... National Grid, Re-Tree WNY announce major grants for re-forestation effort after October storm National Grid's Dennis Elsenbeck shakes hands with Re-Tree co-chairman David Colligan as Paul Maurer, Re-Tree WNY co-chairman looks on BUFFALO (Oct. 11) -- National Grid today announced it is supporting the broad effort to mitigate the devastating impact of the October 2006 snowstorm on Western New York’s trees through grants special program allocations totaling $175,000. These funds will be used in the storm-affected communities the company serves in the region. The company will partner with Re-Tree WNY, the volunteer organization formed shortly after the 2006 storm with a goal of planting 30,000 trees throughout the affected region over the next five years. Read more... David Colligan, Paul Maurer, and National Grid's Dennis Elsenbeck plant some new trees on Sagamore Terrace in North Buffalo Senator Clinton welcomes progress during FEMA meeting to discuss lingering concerns from October snowstorm FEMA and SEMO agree to reassess stump removals on a case-by-case basis Senator says she will continue to push FEMA for a 100% removal and reimbursement assistance Washington, DC – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today welcomed an agreement by both the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and New York State Emergency Management Office (SEMO) to work with local authorities in Western New York to reassess their tree stump removal and reimbursement needs following the surprise October snowstorm last year. At a meeting this morning in Buffalo, which Senator Clinton’s office organized, both FEMA and SEMO agreed to reassess local stump removal needs on a case-by-case basis with a view to addressing the hazardous stumps that remain. At the meeting, FEMA and SEMO agreed to work with local officials to assess each tree stump. Current FEMA policy is to reimburse for the removal hazardous tree stumps if 50 percent or more of the root ball is exposed. Following the meeting, Senator Clinton said she would continue to push FEMA Director R. David Paulison to change the policy so that FEMA will reimburse for full removal of stumps in the region. Presidential Trees donated to 100 High Schools at UB Al Gore Speech Re-Tree WNY's trees (donated by RPM Ecosystems) were on stage as former VP and Academy Award Winner Al Gore took the microphone to tell 5,000 students all about global warming and climate change. This was the first of two sold-out lectures by Gore in Buffalo at UB Alumni Arena on Friday April 27th at 12:15PM. After the event, each school was told they will be receiving a special gift of a presidential tree (grown off of the original tree at a presidential estate) donated by NY Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The trees will be planted by Re-Tree WNY! Sabres star plants a tree with Re-Tree WNY Sabres star Paul Gaustad joined managing partner Larry Quinn and director of communications Mike Gilbert to help Re-Tree WNY plant in the Fruit Belt area of Buffalo. Paul grabbed a Sabres shovel (painted Sabres colors) and planted along Jefferson Street in Buffalo. The Buffalo Sabres Foundation donated a generous $10,000 that day to Re-Tree WNY to plant more trees in our area! Buffalo News unveils Major Fundraiser - The Buffalo News Green Leaf Campaign - for Re-Tree WNY Re-Tree WNY announces the Buffalo News Green Leaf Campaign, which ended July 23rd, has raised a record $350,000 for Re-Tree WNY. We will be using these funds to buy trees for our massive Western New York reforesting starting in October. Thank you, Buffalo News and especially publisher Stan Lipsey and wife Judi! WRITE or E-MAIL Your LETTER OF SUPPORT We have applied for $5.1 million in aid to help us re-forest WNY. Be sure you write to your congressman AND senator to ask for their support. All you need to do is click on the "Letter of Support" button on the upper right on this page. Please, DO IT NOW! PLEASE Donate Look to your right! We are now able to take donations directly off of our website. Just click on the button to help support our needs! BE SURE YOU GET THIS INFO TO ANYONE WHO'S EXPRESSED INTEREST IN DONATING. Thank you from us and "the trees!" Listen to local radio personalities read poetry about trees ©2006-2007 Re-Tree WNY