Happy New Year!

End the Year with a Gift

'Tis the season of gratitude and gifting. We hope that you have had a happy holiday season and we wish you health and lots of natural beauty in the New Year!

You can make a year end donation to the Sugar Pine Foundation to help restore our forests and connect kids to nature.

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Another EASY Way to Donate all Year long!

Designate the Sugar Pine Foundation as your Amazon Smile Non-profit:

smile.amazon.com/ch/25-1909869

Update from Patagonia

Patagonia spent 10 million dollars matching donations to non-profits! The Sugar Pine Foundation received about $5,000 of it. Thank you to all our supporters who took advantage of this match and to Patagonia for your generosity!

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Spotlight on Jeff Lyles

"When I am out by my Sugar Pine, I get feelings like it is a happy tree," Jeff Lyles wrote us when he sent us the above photo of his sugar pine sapling.  He also got the feeling that it needed some buddies, so he bought three more seedlings this fall.

We love to hear about our trees thriving in their new homes and like to know the background to these success stories, too.  We asked Jeff about his interest in sugar pines, and he shared his unique story with us.

It all starts with his teenage epiphany about the non-renewable nature of fossil fuels while out raccoon hunting with his grandfather:
"It hit me that every time the piston went up and down in the motor, that the fossil fuel gas that was burnt would never be replaced. A few years later it hit me that power companies don’t want us to produce power at home, even though that would do away with power lines that can cause fire like those in California."

Jeff eventually became a pipefitter and worked at nuclear and other power and chemical plants.  He moved to Washington in 1985.  He purchased 5 acres of land in 1987 and proceeded to plant hundreds of nut and fir trees.  He writes, "I have a connection to the trees. I have been called a tree hugger... When I was called a tree hugger, I couldn’t resist hugging a tree and having my picture taken hugging it."

Jeff also likes hiking and learning about the different types of trees in the forest around him and elsewhere.  When a friend told him about a trip to southern Oregon and the sugar pines with their enormous cones there, he was curious to learn more. He says, "I was intrigued by the Sugar Pine tree. I looked them up on the internet and ordered a couple. One died. The lawnmower won the battle with it. The other one is doing great."

We agree that it sure is a happy looking tree, and hope that Jeff's new seedlings grow up to be happy little trees as well!

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THANK YOU TO OUR DECEMBER DONORS:

Kaphan Foundation

Craig Olson, Barton Tretheway, Maureen Carroll, Carolyn Atkinson, 

Daniel Martin, Tom Moore, Bob Mooney, Lee Sevison, Michael Waeiss,

Patagonia Matching Funds,

Kronmal Giving Fund In memory of Carole Farrands,

Brian O’Mara, Bonnie Cassel, Eric Gabele, Jacqueline O’Connor,

David Smith, Sherma Kopple Svensson, Anna Ward, Roberta Mason, 

Alisa Adriani, Bonnie Barnard, Cookie Rork, Janet Tangney,

Phyllis McConn, Gerald Mix, Lynn Roberts, Judith Cope, Scott MacLeod,

Jonas Elliott Gerson, Joshua & Jeanne Benin, Brian Palmer, 

Niki O’Brien, Vicki McQueen, Terri Russell, Laura Ferree