Welcome to one of the most popular forestry websites in North America. We're glad you're here. Please take a few minutes to look around. Then do us a big favor. Tell us what you think of our site. Your suggestions for improvement - and your criticisms - are the only true measures of the quality of our work.

We have been in the forestry education business for 25 years, not long when measured against forestry's long and fruitful history, but long enough to know that our work will never end because public questions about forestry's veracity will never end. Hence, the premium we place on the accuracy and integrity of our work - and on the suggestions for improvement that you offer.

We are magazine publishers first, which will help explain my initial reluctance to invest scarce contributor dollars in the construction and maintenance of a website - emphasis on maintenance because so many of the websites I see look no different today than they did a year ago. I wanted something that would be as popular and as current as our award winning Evergreen Magazine. We aren't there yet, but we're closing fast.

Our site's designers - Point One Media in British Columbia - imbedded some very sophisticated monitoring tools in this site's architecture. We aren't trying to spy on you, but we do want to know where you go on our site, how much time you spend with us and whether you are a new or repeat visitor.

What we know from analyzing the monthly reports we get from Point One goes something like this: you love the original material we produce, but for reasons we don't yet understand, you tend to shy away from the material we draw in from other sources, including some very solid reports we get from the Society of American Foresters. They are posted in "Notes from All Over." Please have a look.

We also know that you spend a great deal of time reviewing back issues of Evergreen. When we last looked it was still the most widely read forestry magazine in North America. The PDF files are posted in "The Best of Evergreen." Enjoy.

My editorials, which have been too few and far between, also draw lots of attention from both forestry's supporters and those who aren't so sure cutting down trees is a good idea. Either way, I enjoy the give and take. Of course, our hope is to bring the doubters around to our belief that trees are the most versatile renewable natural resource on Earth. So long as we continue to replant at the current rate, we will never run out of them.

Again, welcome to our website, and please share your suggestions or criticisms with me by clicking on Contact Us at the top of this page. Thanks again for logging on.

Best wishes,
Jim Petersen
Co-founder and Executive Director
The non-profit Evergreen Foundation