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of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

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    Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

    Donate to the Keystone Tree Fund

    You can check the $3.00 check-off box on your Pennsylvania driver's license and vehicle registration online application to donate to the Keystone Tree fund. You can also mail in a direct donation. 

    Overview

    Planting trees along streams plays an important role in maintaining the health of our waterways.

    Trees in cities and towns help in so many ways, including providing shade to keep temperatures cooler and improving the air.

    The Keystone Tree Fund provides money for grants to help communities and non-profit organizations plant trees along streams and in urban areas.

    The Keystone Tree Fund creates a voluntary $3.00 check-off box on Pennsylvania driver’s license and vehicle registration online applications to buy, plant, and maintain more trees across the Commonwealth.

    The fund also can accept direct donations in the form of checks.

    Checks should be made out to “DCNR c/o Keystone Tree Fund,” and mailed to:

    Pennsylvania DCNR Bureau of Forestry
    ATTN: Rural and Community Forestry
    400 Market St., 6th Floor
    Harrisburg, PA 17105

    More information about forest buffers

    Pennsylvania has more than 86,000 miles of rivers and streams. One important way to make the water cleaner and help animals is by keeping and restoring trees along streams, known as riparian forest buffers.

    The state wants to plant 95,000 acres of trees along rivers by 2025. This will help improve Pennsylvania's rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.

    The Pennsylvania Riparian Forest Buffer Advisory Committee (PDF) has been set up to give advice and information about this work.

    Landowners and farmers can improve water quality and wildlife habitat by planting stream buffers along their waterways.

    It's best to get advice from someone who knows riparian maintenance and restoration.

    Many resources can help. They include DCNR service foresters (PDF) and county conservation districts. Each county has an assigned service forester.

    They help landowners and residents practice sustainable forestry, including planting stream buffers.

    If you don’t own land near streams, volunteering is another way to pitch in. Several community and conservation groups are working to establish and maintain buffers.

    There are a number of incentives for conservation practices that include stream buffers that are outlined by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts in a Landowner’s Guide to Conservation Buffer Incentive Programs in Pennsylvania (PDF)Opens In A New Window.

    The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources provides grants for rivers conservation and watershed forestry to help identify locations in need of streamside forest buffers and to design, establish, monitor, and maintain those buffers.