PPL Trees for the Future, a program that has helped more than 1 million students and tens of thousands of educators learn about the vital role of trees in the environment, is now available online.

Five minutes at www.pplweb.com/community/trees is all it takes for a teacher to sign up for the program. More than 200,000 students and more than 8,000 teachers from 600 schools participated in TFTF last year alone.

"Our Trees for the Future environmental education program is an important piece in the family of PPL's Project Earth environmental initiatives. This is the 10th consecutive year for the program," said Larry Sparta, PPL's Trees for the Future program manager. "I know of no other program in Pennsylvania that reaches such a large number of students and educators."

Each year, PPL Corp. invites students and educators from kindergarten through fifth grade to participate. Teachers receive a packet of resource materials, including lesson guides and activities to teach about trees.

Students in grades K-1 and 4-5 receive student activity books and other resource materials as part of the program. Students in grades 2-3 actually receive seedlings to take home and plant.

Resource materials are sent out toward the end of March. Seedlings will be sent out in late April to coincide with Earth Day and Arbor Day activities.

Interested teachers should visit the web site. The deadline for signing up for the program on the Internet is Feb. 27.