The Tree-Land Foundation is a conservation and environmental education non-profit corporation begun in 1995.  It was created to provide land where young people could have quality, hands-on, outdoor educational and recreational experiences. 

 Tree-Land Foundation owns and maintains rural, undeveloped property in Myersville, Frederick County, Maryland, which is registered as a forest conservation area and made available at no cost to youth groups (like Scouts).  Some of Tree-Land’s funding is derived through transfer of forest conservation easements to real estate developers in accordance with the Maryland Forest Resource Ordinance Act.

 Tree-Land’s property has been used for "primitive camping" by hundreds of youth and the site for dozens of Foundation-funded Eagle Scout Projects. These projects have reforested many acres of open pasture, created nature trails, campsites, etc.  Tree-Land has also awarded thousands of dollars in college scholarships to Eagle Scouts in the Frederick County area.  

  The Foundation’s creators were instrumental in the implementation of Maryland’s pioneering Rural Legacy Program.  This state-wide initiative dedicated funds for the purchase of land development-rights easements from owners of rural properties to protect that land from future development and ensure the existence of “green spaces” for future generations.  The uniqueness of Tree-Land’s contributions to Frederick County’s grant proposal resulted in an additional $1.25 million dollars being granted to the County for land conservation and preservation.

In 1998, the Foundation expanded its local environmental education efforts and created the ONE AMERICA Program to bring together young people from different American cultures and provide them with international travel and environmental education opportunities.  ONE AMERICA takes U.S. high school and college age youth groups to Mexico to live among the indigenous people and work with them on volunteer environmental, health, and cultural projects. 

In 2001, Tree-Land created the Old Glasses for New Eyes Project to provide vision screening and low-to-no-cost eyeglasses to economically disadvantaged people in Yucatan, Mexico.  The Foundation is spearheading interaction between Rotary and Lions Clubs in the U.S. and Mexico to create a new vision screening clinic in Merida, Yucatan along with a mobile clinic that will service the vision needs of the indigent Maya in outlying pueblos.  These clinics will distribute re-cycled eyeglasses collected by young people in the states who ship them to Mexico for clinic use. This project expands the existing Rotary Foundation Gift of Better Vision Program currently operating in Mexico City.  Possible future expansion of this pilot program to other countries has been discussed by Rotary and United Nations World Health Organization people.

The Tree-Land Foundation believes solving ecological, environmental, and economic problems requires awareness, understanding, and compromise.  It provides experiential opportunities that encourage peoples’ awareness of, search for, and discovery of solutions to those problems, and strongly emphasizes the life-long responsibility of people to work together to achieve those solutions.  

                    Our Philosophy - R. Martin

                                "If you want to touch the past... touch a stone.

                                   If you want to touch the present... touch a tree.

                                            If you want to touch the future... touch a child."

Home     How We Began    Using Tree-Land Property    ONE AMERICA Program    Gift of Better Vision Program    

Old Glasses for New Eyes Project    Funding    Contact Us    

© 2003 Tree-Land Foundation, Inc.

    Email:  BobMartin@TreeLandFoundation.org     Tel.:  ( 301) 471- 9998     P. O. Box 535 , Myersville, MD 21773 USA  

WITH GREAT APPRECIATION:  This website was designed and created for Tree-Land Foundation by the delightful Beatriz Wallace, an intelligent, very talented and lovely woman who's a student at Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.  Thank you, Bea!

                                                                                                                                                                             Last modified: August 05, 2005