Eagle Eye Institute is first conceived when co-founder Anthony Sanchez, receives a vision from an eagle soaring overhead. The eagle tells him that to fulfill his task on earth he will need to buy land and start Eagle Eye, an Institute of higher learning. Anthony holds on to his vision for 25 years. "It's like a hemlock tree that can grow in the shade for up to 25 years," Anthony muses now, "waiting for an opening in the canopy which will allow it to grow up."

Realizing that owning land is a major part of their vision, Anthony and MaJa search for land. While visiting a friend's land in Nova Scotia, where eagles came to feed, they reconnected with the vision and importance of buying land. They meet a woman in Lenox, Massachusetts who knows of "the perfect realtor." They contact Eileen, the realtor. After searching many other properties, Anthony and MaJa asked her if they can see a site in Peru, Massachusetts which Eileen had dismissed as "too remote." "When we saw it and felt the energy of the land, we said 'This is it!'" Anthony remembers. "The land was so incredible! It had the perfect energy and the correct balance of natural elements. We knew this was the place of visions." The land even had a beautiful waterfall.

Realizing that owning land is a major part of their vision, Anthony and MaJa search for land. While visiting a friend's land in Nova Scotia, where eagles came to feed, they reconnected with the vision and importance of buying land. They meet a woman in Lenox, Massachusetts who knows of "the perfect relator." They contact Eileen, the realtor. After searching many other properties, Anthony and MaJa asked her if they can see a site in Peru, Massachusetts which Eileen had dismissed as "too remote." "When we saw it and felt the energy of the land, we said 'This is it!'" Anthony remembers. "The land was so incredible! It had the perfect energy and the correct balance of natural elements. We knew this was the place of visions." The land even had a beautiful waterfall.

MaJa and Anthony want to buy the land, but it's been taken off the market. While in Hawaii, surrounded by waterfalls, MaJa awakes with a feeling about the land. Sure enough, a call to the realtor reveals that the land is again available. The two make plans to purchase the land.

Eagle Eye is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) and the founders begin creating the Institute. When they share their idea about an international peace camp, enthusiastic friends point out that they don't need to fly youth over from other countries -- their own community of Somerville is international. They envision a program that brings urban youth to the newly acquired Eagle Eye Land Trust. Also in 1991, Anthony and MaJa attend a three-day workshop that teaches landowners about managing their land for wildlife, and as part of the workshop are asked to educate others about the benefits of forests and wildlife. This leads to a plan: bring urban youth to the land in Peru for one-day Learn About Forests programs. They ask the workshop leader, David Kittredge, to become the first Learn About Forests instructor, and he agrees. The Learn About Forests program is born!

Eagle Eye Institute runs four Learn About Forests programs. "These programs were so successful," Anthony remembers. "Young people came there, learned a lot, and were very excited. Most had never been in the forest before. A lot of them had never been outside their own communities. It was as though we had stumbled upon success. And the land taught us the elements needed. Since 1992, Eagle Eye Institute has continued to have great success with Learn About Forests™, introducing more than 5000 multi-ethnic youth to the beauty and peace of forests. Past participants have gone on to studies and careers in environmental fields.

Eagle Eye Institute initiates two new programs: Learn About Water and the advanced, three-day long Learn More About Forests.

Eagle Eye Institute's Rainbow Stewards program is launched in Somerville, to give young people the opportunity to learn about the value of urban street trees while conducting a city wide tree survey.

The Wings Initiative is launched as a result of overwhelming interest for the Learn About Forests program. Through this initiative, Eagle Eye begins to train and support partner organizations to coordinate, or "champion" Learn About Forests programs for youth from their own communities. In addition, Eagle Eye staff offer the Learn About Agriculture program for the first time.

Trees Are My Friends, Eagle Eye Institute's campaign to introduce community forestry to urban people of color, is launched nationwide with an NUCFAC grant from the USDA Forest Service. The Trees Are My Friends PSA is broadcast in major metropolitan areas, reaching an audience of 20 million.

Eagle Eye Institute receives the National Arbor Day Foundation 2002 Advertising and Public Relations Award for the "Trees Are My Friends" campaign. Rainbow Stewards summer youth peer leadership program is launched in partnership with the Boston Harbor Islands National Park; 8 peer leaders participate in the 6-week program. Funding is provided through a five-year partnership agreement with the National Park Service.

Eagle Eye Institute is awarded a two-year USDA Forest Service NUCFAC grant of $103,500 to train more Champions to deliver Eagle Eye's Learn About Forests (LAF) programs. 6 Champions ran 15 LAF programs in New England as well as Columbus, GA. Eagle Eye also began a community stewardship program engaging youth organizations in the learning and stewardship of their own urban natural environment.

Eagle Eye Institute successfully pilots a summer internship program in partnership with Southern University of Baton Rouge, LA. with funding from the USDA Forest Service Civil Rights. This program placed and supported interns with Eagle Eye Champions who ran Learn About Forests™ programs.

Eagle Eye begins a four-year comprehensive Green Industry Career Pathway (GICP) program in partnership with The Trustees of Reservations (TTOR), YouthBuild USA and four YouthBuild affiliated programs in MA (New Bedford, Brockton, Lowell and Springfield). Through GICP, Eagle Eye' delivers its three tiered program model (learning, stewardship, and career bridging programs) to one youth audience over a 9-month time period with a consistent team of natural resource professionals from one organization.

YouthBuild Boston and YouthBuild Just-A-Start Cambridge join the other affiliated YouthBuild programs Eagle Eye is working with in the Green Industry Career Pathway program.  Through the success of the GCIP, 4 graduates are placed in seasonal paid positions, with MA Audubon, Eagle Eye, and The Trustees of Reservations. The National Arbor Day Foundation chose Eagle Eye to help coordinate its Boston Arbor Day celebration as one of 10 cities across the country. Eagle Eye partners with the newly formed Boston Urban Forest Coalition to coordinate an event that spanned 2 weeks in which more than 100 trees were planted in 7 different neighborhoods, involving youth groups, local community coalitions, Home Depot employees, the City of Boston, MA Department of Conservation and Recreation, and local arborists.

Eagle Eye featured on National Public Radio’s “Field Notes” and on WCVB Chronicle TV segment “Au Naturel”. College student, Molly Koch, completes her documentary, “Cambridge 13” focused on the Green Industry Career Pathway program and the YouthBuild students. The GICP demonstrates success in awakening interest in green careers and places 18 students in seasonal positions with MA Audubon, Eagle Eye, and The Trustees of Reservations as well as private landscape companies. In partnership with the MA YouthBuild Coalition and funding from the MA Dept of Conservation and Recreation, Eagle Eye coordinates the first statewide Arbor Day celebration, planting 135 trees in 13 communities involving all 11 MA YouthBuild programs, their students, staff, municipal arborists, and local community members. The tree planting celebrations demonstrate that youth from low income communities and communities of color are taking positive action on behalf of the environment in their communities and receive wide media attention. All sites were chosen with an emphasis on planting trees in areas where they are needed most, primarily low-income neighborhoods where tree canopy has traditionally been low, where the increased shade and health effects of these trees will be well-appreciated, thereby taking steps to restore equity across the city, while reducing a major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, as air quality is improved.

YouthBuild Fall River begins to participate in the Green Industry Career Pathway program. Eagle Eye offers a national webinar through Alliance for Community Trees on the success of GICP as a model adult workforce development training program.