Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, has helped plant more than 78,000 trees in 2011 through the Canon Forest Program. Since joining forces in 2009, Canon U.S.A. has planted 112,330 trees to date throughout forests in desperate need of replanting. The trees planted this year include 48,071 trees in South Carolina's Manchester State Forest and 30,592 trees in Wisconsin's Bayfield County Forest.
The longleaf pine trees planted in Manchester State Forest are part of a critical replanting effort to restore the species to a larger portion of its former natural range. In the Southeast, longleaf pine ecosystems provide many benefits including critical habitat to several threatened and endangered species such as the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. These pine trees are also more fire resistant, important in an area that can be prone to fires throughout spring and summer months.
For Wisconsin's Bayfield County Forest, planting efforts took place in spring 2011 to enhance tree species biodiversity across several different forest areas. Five different species of trees, white pine, red pine, jack pine, white spruce and tamarack, are creating connectivity with adjacent forest areas, improving the health of the ecosystems, and re-establishing native forests lost over the last 100 years to insects, disease and clear-cutting. As a result, new habitats have been created for bird species such as the Sharp Tailed Grouse and the federally endangered Kirtland's Warbler. Additionally, this project is working to restore the boreal forest along the south shore of Lake Superior.