New Mission, New Name … Same Passion

The Social Forestry Project was our original name when our nonprofit efforts were founded by John Kost, in 2017, as an in-the-field tree planting organization. We had many successes that we are proud of, including numerous trees planted in Detroit, Hamtramck, Ferndale and other surrounding communities of southeast Michigan. Over these past five years, we have been fortunate to work with some amazing volunteers, as well as other organizations that shared our passion for planting trees. 

In recent months, we have re-evaluated our mission and decided that the process of planting trees is already in very capable hands, as there are dozens of organizations throughout Michigan, and the US, that are doing the work necessary to improve communities by getting trees in the ground. We believe we can play a new role that instead focuses on uniting forestry with social equity, providing equal access for those from underserved and underrepresented communities.

Our goal is to soon be providing all-terrain wheelchairs to local parks.

In short, we believe that everybody, everywhere, has a right to equal access to the great outdoors – whether that’s to protect, enjoy them, or both.We know we can use our experience and connections from the past five years to make a stronger impact on forest conservation by shifting our mission in this direction – a new path forward that allows us to fill in a gap that needs a little more help. Thus, we look forward to focusing our efforts on supporting the work of foresters and providing equal access to forest experiences for those that typically would not have the opportunity to enjoy them. 

Some of the amazing kids from the Detroit Outdoors program.

THE MISSION IS ALREADY BEING ACHIEVED!

We are proud to already have contributed to this new mission by providing funding, tools and/or expertise to Wayne State University for ground maintenance; the Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning and Innovation; as well as to the Sierra Club’s Detroit Outdoors program, helping them provide training, gear and programming for youth groups, scout troops and school classes to have an overnight camping experience at Scout Hollow in Rouge Park, which is Detroit’s only overnight campground. 

We will also soon announce projects that will see us provide trees, training and tools for reforestation projects in two iconic locations – Easter Island and South America’s Patagonia region; as well as other projects in Michigan and Illinois, where we hope to provide all-terrain wheelchairs to underserved local parks.