Trees, Water and People

Mission Trees, Water & People (TWP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Stuart Conway and Richard Fox in 1998, in Fort Collins, Colorado. We believe that natural resources are best protected when local people play an active role in their care and management. The preservation of local trees, wetlands, and watersheds are essential in establishing long-term social, economic, and environmental viability of communities. To that end we have established programs, both domestically and internationally, that incorporate our mission and beliefs, as well as the desires, abilities, and efforts of the people that our work directly benefits. Programs

Internationally, TWP works extensively in Central America and Haiti. Together, with our local partners, we support 16 community tree nurseries that produce more than 650,000 trees annually to aid in reforestation efforts. To date, we have planted over 4 million trees. We have built 46,000 fuel-efficient stoves that decrease the need for wood by up to 70%, as compared to the standard open fire cooking, and reduce carbon emissions by at least 1 ton/each per year. When vented to the outside of the home, these improved stoves also decrease indoor air pollution, which is responsible for the deaths of 1.6 million women and children globally every year, by up to 75%.

Nationally, TWP is actively involved with helping to improve the lives Native American families living on the reservations of the Great Plains. There, where the winters are extremely long and harsh, Native Americans commonly spend more than half of their income on their exorbitant utility bills. Together with our local partners, we have installed more than 250 economic solar heating systems that make use of the sun’s renewable energy to help heat their homes during these long winter months. We have also planted trees and shrubs around the home sites for more than 160 additional families to act as important wind blocks during the cold winter and provide much-needed shade during the hot summer. In Colorado and the Arid West, TWP provides technical and organizational development training and coaching assistance to watershed protection groups.