Richard St . Barbe Baker Richard St . Barbe Baker ( 9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982 ) was an English forester , environmental activist and author , who contributed greatly to worldwide reforestation efforts . As a leader , he founded an organization , still active today , whose many chapters carry out reforestation internationally . Life and work . Early years . He was born on 9 October 1889 in West End , Hampshire , to John Richard St . Barbe Baker and Charlotte Purrott . He was brother of Thomas Guillaume St . Barbe Baker . He was descended from lines of farmers , parsons and evangelists – with the occasional adventurer amongst his forebears , as well . As a very young child he was attracted to gardening and , since the family ’ s Beacon Hill home was surrounded by a wood , he began to explore the forest at a fairly early age . He became very adept at manual work and harboured a lifelong belief in its value . St . Barbe Baker ’ s father wanted him to enter the ministry , so at 13 he was sent to Dean Close School , a boarding school in Cheltenham , where he became interested in the sciences of botany and forestry . A clergyman recently returned from Canada appealed to his religious heritage and suggested that the young man prepare himself for missionary work in the western region of that country . He did so in 1910 , sailing the Atlantic and heading far inland , where he lived in rough - hewn conditions , devoted to studies that would earn him a diploma from Emmanuelle College , University of Saskatchewan . Doing evangelical work , travelling widely on horseback , he became convinced that the agricultural practices ( including the razing of the natural scrub trees ) by European settlers were leading to deplorable soil degradation and potential aridity on Canada ’ s prairies . Working for a short while as a logger and managing to save some money , he returned to England to study at Ridley Hall , Cambridge . When World War I intervened , he served in France with Royal Horse Artillery ( RHA ) units and was wounded on three occasions . After discharge , he worked in the British Government ’ s social services for a period . Work in Africa . St . Barbe Baker soon resumed studies at Cambridge in forestry . He had realised through observation that deforestation , resulting from the removal of trees without sufficient reforestation , results in soil - loss problems , declines in habitat and biodiversity , declines in availability of wood for fuel and industrial use , and reduction in quality of life . Graduating from the Cambridge forestry programme , he applied for work in British - ruled Kenya . In North Africa he saw the effects of centuries of land mismanagement , first from wheat farming in the later days of the Roman Empire and after that from the grazing of goats first introduced by Arabs . Immediately concerned with these deforestation problems , in 1922 he set up a tree nursery and founded an organization with Kenya ’ s Kikuyu people to carry out managed reforestation in the region , utilizing native species . In the regional dialect , the local society was called “ Watu wa Miti ” . This formed the foundation stone for what was to become an international organization , the Men of the Trees ( a translation of the original name ) . He left Kenya in 1924 and went back to England . After giving a talk at the First Congress of Living Religions within the Commonwealth , he was approached by Claudia Stewart Coles , who introduced him to the Bahá ' í Faith because of the way he had approached a living religion among the tribes there in formulating the " Men of the Trees " ; St . Barbe Baker studied this religion and embraced it shortly after ( in 1924 ) . See Bahá ' í Faith in Kenya . He then returned to Africa , where he was appointed Assistant Conservator of Forests for the southern provinces of Nigeria from 1925 to 1929 ; he went on to do work similar to his work in Kenya . He also did forestry planning work in the Gold Coast . During this time , he devoted himself in part to a study of the ecology of extremely complex tropical forests . However , an incident occurred in which he defended an African man against abuse by a British official and , thereby running afoul of the Colonial Office , he was discharged from his duties . Work in Palestine . He attended the First World Forestry Congress in Rome and then went on to work in Palestine and set up a chapter of the Men of the Trees there . There he met and won the support of Shoghi Effendi , then head of the Bahá ' í Faith , who became the first life member of the Men of the Trees in Palestine . This support led to the backing of Muslim , Jewish and Christian leaders for a programme of reforestation in Palestine . Work in America . Travelling to America , where he crossed the country and toured the Redwood groves on the West Coast , St . Barbe Baker became an author and sought - after lecturer , and received laudatory national attention from popular radio host Lowell Thomas . Returning to England via Australia , his thoughts returned to California and he started the Save the Redwoods campaign . Sir Francis Younghusband , first president of the British chapter of the Men of the Trees , championed the cause in the UK . St . Barbe Baker ’ s connections with the United States remained strong , and in the late 1930s he worked with President Franklin D . Roosevelt to establish the American Civilian Conservation Corps ( CCC ) , said eventually to involve some six million youths . Establishment of the Men of the Trees . In good part because of St . Barbe Baker ’ s continued travels , chapters of his organization , the Men of the Trees ( now the International Tree Foundation in the UK ) , were founded internationally . After World War II , a lecture tour into Austria , Germany and other countries launched his concept of an international Green Front to promote the idea of reforestation worldwide . Probably the largest single challenge that he addressed himself to was the concept of gradually reclaiming the Sahara Desert through the strategic planting of trees . This idea took shape after a 25 , 000 - mile expedition around the desert ( through 24 countries ) , which he undertook with a team in 1952 - 3 . St . Barbe Baker ’ s organization , the Men of the Trees , eventually grew to be known as the International Tree Foundation . Ultimately , there were chapters in over 100 countries . By some estimates , organizations he founded or assisted have been responsible for planting at least 26 trillion trees , internationally . St . Barbe Baker is grouped as one of three progenitors , along with Sir Robert McCarrison and Sir Albert Howard , of the organic agriculture movement . Death and legacy . St . Barbe Baker died on 9 June 1982 in Saskatoon , Saskatchewan . Just days before his death he planted his last tree on the grounds of the University of Saskatchewan , and he was working on his thirty - first book . A memorial to St . Barbe Baker was unveiled in his birth village of West End in Hampshire in March 2003 . The memorial includes a bronze bas - relief image of St . Barbe Baker sculpted by Jill Tweed , set in granite atop a Portland stone column . There is also a street in the village named Barbe Baker Avenue . Bahá ' í Faith . David Hofman , a Canadian Bahá ' í who served on the Universal House of Justice , said of St . Barbe Baker ' s acceptance of the Bahá ' í Faith ( shortly after 1924 ) : " He always said that this was the beginning of his true life , and he realised that he derived so much benefit from these Bahá ' í prayers that it was only fair that he should serve the Bahá ' í Faith to the best of his ability . " Mr . Hofman has also said that , " . . . he spread knowledge of the Faith wherever he went and was greatly admired by Shoghi Effendi for his dedication to the cause of humanity . " See also Bahá ' í Faith in Kenya and Bahá ' í Faith in Nigeria .