Before the forests in Finland and Panama, there was a reef. The first living tribute to Trammell S. Crow was planted under the sea.
Where it began
In the spring of 2022, Steve Bender met Trammell S. Crow in Trammell’s backyard on Turtle Creek in Dallas. Steve came as a Rotarian with projects from around the world. Trammell had spent a decade building a stage where the people doing that kind of work could be heard. They found they believed the same thing: that people working together can do more than any of them alone.
Steve wanted to say thank you in a way that would last longer than words. So the first dedication he made in Trammell’s honor was a reef. In 2022, Rotary Reefs were set on the sea floor off Bocas del Toro, Panama, and one of them was named for Trammell.
A reef shaped like a Rotary wheel
Rotary Reefs began as a single club project of the Rotary Club of Newport Beach: help bring coral back to a bleached patch of the Caribbean off Bocas del Toro, Panama. Reef structures in the shape of the Rotary wheel were placed on the sea floor, and young coral was planted on them.
The reef dedicated to Trammell has come alive. Its Rotary wheels are now home to coral and sponges, and to fish, sharks and lobsters that had left these waters. It grew into The Panama Project, which now joins reef restoration with rainforest planting, clean water and children’s health.
“If the oceans die, we die.”
Captain Paul Watson, a longtime friend of EarthX
Captain Paul Watson Foundation
The first of many tributes
That first reef started a family of living tributes in Trammell’s name:
- A Rotary Reef in Bocas del Toro, Panama, the first.
- The EarthX Forest in Rovaniemi, Finland, in honor of Trammell S. Crow, its founder, announced by Carboreal on December 10, 2025.
- The Trammell S. Crow Rare Tree Forest at Dolphin Bay, Panama, planted on August 6, 2026.
- Next: a forest for the monarch butterflies in the highlands of Mexico.
The EarthX Forest, FinlandThe Rare Tree Forest, PanamaVisit Rotary Reefs
A reef that keeps growing, for the man who gave the people doing the work a place to be heard. Happy birthday, Trammell.
