The Hundred Acre Wood

Pacific Edge Magazine

Many of us remember stories of Winnie the Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood. The nonprofit Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative is bringing these iconic places to life through LegacyForestGifts.com.

Winnie the Pooh, Dr. Seuss and the Peanuts gang are just a few of the familiar names helping restore Hawai'i's forests through a new effort by the nonprofit Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative (HLRI). LegacyForestGifts.com is offering one-of-a-kind pieces of Americana, art and children's literature as a gift with the online sponsorship of Legacy Trees.

Imagine reading the rare original 1930 leather-bound publisher's series of Winnie the Pooh (pictured at left) with your child or grandchild on your knee. Or a pristine 1957 first-edition copy of The Cat in the Hat signed by Dr. Seuss himself, paired with original Cat in the Hat artwork framed in koa (pictured at right). These gifts are part of the selection offered by LegacyForestGifts.com for the sponsorship of endemic King Koa and Royal Hawaiian Sandalwood Legacy Trees for permanent reforestation in the 1,200-acre Legacy Forest on Hawai'i Island.

In addition, the website offers local works of art, including hand-carved milo calabashes, koa art pieces and limited-edition ukuleles, all through a tax-deductible sponsorship starting at $90 per tree. Smaller gifts, like logo wear and leather accessories, are also available. All profits go toward the planting and maintenance of the Hawaiian Legacy Forest.

"This online store exists for the sole purpose of planting trees," says Jeff Dunster, executive director of HLRI. "Legacy Forest Gifts provides the mechanism to restore Hawai'i's natural environment while supporting literature, the arts and our renowned Hawai'i artisans. We saw this as a new way for caring people to leave a legacy for their children, grandchildren or other special loved ones that will transcend one generation and reach into the next."

A sponsor of 500 Legacy Trees or more will also receive the naming rights to their own Family Legacy Forest, complete with a personalized sign marker. In addition to being a special site that memorializes the sponsor's contribution to the environment, the trees provide critical habitat for Hawaiian hawks ('io), Hawaiian geese (nene), and Hawaiian owls (pueo), all of which are endangered species.

Over the past eight years, HLRI has planted more than 400,000 endemic and native trees for permanent reforestation on Hawai'i Island. HLRI uses state-of-the-art radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to record the growth, health, location and sponsorship details of each tree.

Legacy Trees can be tracked online through HLRI's new TreeTrackerTM program (www.findmy.legacytrees.org). HLRI and sustainable forestry company HLH are working to reforest 1.3 million trees across the state-one for each person in Hawai'i.

For more on Legacy Gifts, visit www.LegacyForestGifts.com.

To sponsor a Legacy Tree, visit www.LegacyTrees.org.