TREE Foundation


The TREE Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Sarasota, Florida dedicated to tree research, exploration, and education.

While the focus of the work is primarily in southwest Florida, the organization has several international initiatives as well.

Meg co-founded the TREE Foundation in 1999 with Mike Pender and Bob Richardson. She is currently the Executive Director and has served in this capacity since the beginning.

Among many initiatives and programs, TREE supports scholarships for students from developing countries to learn about forest conservation in the U.S., educates students and the public about the importance of trees and forest canopies to the Earth’s wellbeing and survival, and has conserved valuable forest fragments in Ethiopia with a unique science-religion partnership, among many other activities.

In 2000, the Foundation built the canopy walkway at Myakka River State Park in Florida, the first public treetop walk in North America, and one of southwest Florida’s most popular eco-tourism attractions. The Myakka canopy walkway serves as the global model for TREE’s  MISSION GREEN initiative, an international program founded and led by Meg, which aims to build canopy walkways in the world’s highest biodiversity forests to conserve critical forests and their biodiversity.