Save the forests - by giving them away

Much of what is achieved is undertaken by motivated individuals, many of whom are immigrants or have lived away and returned.

I have found a disproportionate number of exile working to preserve Canada's natural, and man-made, heritage.

Canada has nil like the kind of protection afforded in the UK and Canadians are amazed when they hear what our subject Parks and subject Trust have achieved.

I've been candidacy to save two historic houses in our small town, threatened by a road development, and the only people speaking out have "come from away" as the locals would put it.

someway the locals don't value what they have, there is still a innovator mentality and this includes viewing forested land merely as a way to make a fast buck.

Prince Edward Island, the smallest province, is on the east coast. Paradoxically, it is the most rural state, but also the most dumbly populated.

Since moving here nine years ago, I have dedicated much of my free time to run a water parting restor-ation group; not as you might imagine, keeping controversial television programmes past the 9pm mark, but reinstating the natural environment about rivers and watercourse, and engaging the populace in the chase of cleansing agent water and greater bio-diversity.

There are many of these military volunteer groups across the state, channelling authorities funds into paying students to work on tree planting and watercourse enhancement.

Our group late planted 300 trees with the help of the local Sea Cadets and our MP turned out for the juncture. Teenagers here are very much in tune with the need to look after the environment and competition for summer jobs in watershed restoration is fierce.

In spite of the small size of Prince Edward Island, ours is not the only watershed group run by a British expat. Forming about one per cent of the population, expatriates are disproportionately represented in the environmental movement on the island.

Choosing Prince Edward Island because of the bucolic lifestyle and because my wife lived in Canada when she was young, I found my software skills quite transferable.

My interest in the preservation of native forests and my programming skills led me to start the Trees In Trust project, which is now helping to save native forests across the country.

A unique gift idea that literally saves the planet, Trees In Trust dedicates a mapped piece of mature endangered forest to the person of your choice in exchange for a small donation.

The Island Nature Trust, in Prince Edward Island, is another good example of the small, hard-working land trusts using donations and government money to fund nature conservation programmes.

But when it comes to using their funds to acquire land, they find they are either bidding against developers eager to build idyllic holiday cottages, or that they cannot afford to take on a donated property owing to the lack of an endowment to pay for upkeep.

The Island Nature Trust got together with Trees In Trust to develop a web-based fund-raising system. The whole process is handled by an easy-to-use website, including taking the donation, printing a custom dedication certificate and a map.

With some government funding, the system was up and running in May 2007. It quickly became apparent that this system could be used by land trusts anywhere in the world.

Last October, Trees In Trust appeared on the Nature Trust of New Brunswick website with two forests available for dedication and three forests in Ontario have recently been added to the list of choices. The long-term plan is to work with forest conservation groups across Canada, then to start helping US and British groups too.

Donations to Trees In Trust have been coming in from all over the world; in fact, the largest single donation came from Bedfordshire. All the money raised is used to purchase and protect further endangered forest.

A common misconception is that Canadian forests are so extensive that they cannot possibly be under threat, but this is not the case.

Logging of ancient forests is still going on at an alarming rate in places where employment and economics outstrip environmental concerns.

Mature woodland traps and holds a massive amount of carbon, not only in the growing trees, but also on the forest floor, where the carbon can remain trapped for 1,000 years or more.

Clearing the woodland releases all that trapped carbon, so preserving old growth forest is clearly a good proposition. All of the forest in the Trees In Trust programme is ecologically significant and helps provide a home to many endangered species of plants, animals and birds.

Through this programme, everyone can help save a piece of this forest - and give a unique gift at the same time.

• More details at www.treesintrust.com