Dear Friends,

You might think that at age 73 I would pass the responsibility for raising money for the Tree Research and Education Endowment (TREE Fund) onto the next generation of arborists and tree lovers. But I’ve signed up once more for the Tour des Trees, a 5-day bicycle ride that raises money for independent research into the problems facing the urban forest. This year I will be joining 80 other riders, many of them less than half my age, for a 450-mile ride that will start in Stamford, Connecticut and end in Providence, Rhode Island. Each rider must raise a minimum of $3700 to participate, and I am asking you to please help me meet and hopefully exceed that goal. Please consider making a charitable donation to my fund-raising effort today. I promise to train and get in shape for the ride, to raise awareness of the importance of trees and to plant trees along the Tour route with the help of local organizations who will care for the little ones until they are big enough to care for themselves. All you need to do is to contribute whatever you can to the TREE Fund. You can follow our progress by opening a link to the 2024 Tour des Trees website, where you will find photos of the riders and a daily update.

I wouldn’t ask for your help if I wasn’t 100% convinced that Arborists across the world need the help of a well-financed and independent research community to keep us up to date in our effort to combat the many problems faced by our urban forest. Climate change and newly emerging insect pests and diseases combine with some of the old problems that never seem to go away, such as soil compaction and stem girdling root, to make the average life span of an urban tree much shorter than it should be. Please help me in the effort to improve the health of the urban forest and to make it grow. Yes, you can make a difference by contributing now to the Tree Research and Education Endowment.

Best wishes to you all,

Clem Desjardins