Mary Esther Green was founded to assist the Okaloosa County community to better understand, preserve, plant, and maintain trees and forests as an important community resource. We work toward inspiring citizens, local officials, foresters, landscape architects, engineers, and planners to shift their focus to recognizing the importance of tree and other vegetation for improving our community and restoring our natural areas.

Building upon a model urban forest concept adapted from the Georgia Forestry Commission, Mary Esther Green works with the community to enlarge and improve its urban forest by expanding the forest canopy to obtain the economic, ecological, and social benefits of trees by following six principles:

1. Preserve existing trees and forests.
2. Increase space for tree planting.
3. Preserve and improve the quality of the tree-growing environment.
4. Select trees for diversity and suitability.
5. Select efficient planting locations.
6. Manage the urban forest as a continuous resource regardless of ownership boundaries.

Simply explained, the model urban forest is based on the need to re-examine current development attitudes. It attempts to place trees at the same level of importance as other crucial infrastructure elements like roads and utility lines. To do this, we need to set a collective vision that includes views and values.