“Trees need people, people need trees” – if you’ve ever worked with TreePeople, you know the rhythmic lilt of that chant as well as you know the story of the 15-year-old boy who tore up a parking lot with his bare hands to plant a grove of trees (so the legend goes) and started the whole thing in motion 40 years ago.

But after 40 years, it’s about time for a mid-life crisis and with the historic drought of the past few years leaving our urban forest thirsting for water, it was only a matter of time before somebody teased the following transitive relation out of the classic TreePeople chant: “Trees need people, people need beers, therefore, trees need beers.” And with that simple idea, scrawled almost illegibly onto a cocktail napkin (so the legend goes), a revolution began and Thirsty Thursday was born.

So, what is Thirsty Thursday? It’s a series of Thursday evening events: first, mapping or caring for trees near a bar or brewery with TreeMapLA; then, a social event at said bar or brewery. The trees are thirsty, people are thirsty – let’s care for both needs at the same time. The trees, it turns out, prefer water, but we’ll forgive them for that.

We had our first event less than a month ago and we’ve already mapped 234 trees with 26 volunteers. We’ll circle back to care for those trees in the coming months.

If you feel like you’ve missed out, have no fear – we’ve got three Thirsty Thursday events coming up in the next few weeks, including one TONIGHT!

Thursday, Sep 4 – MacLeod Ale Brewing Co. in Van Nuys

Thursday, Sep 18 – The Oinkster in Eagle Rock

Thursday, Sep 25 – La Cuevita in Highland Park

And if you’re inclined to whine that “None of those are near me,” we are equal-opportunity drinkers and mappers and we are always happy to taste new beers and chart new trees. Let us know where you want the next Thirsty Thursday event!

But what about daylight, Danny – what happens when the clocks change?! You make a good point, dear reader, and we may just have some Sunday Funday Tree Mapping Brunches coming down the line, with bottomless Mimosas (that’s Albizia julibrissin, folks)! So, stay tuned – and stay thirsty, my friends.

TreeMapLA is TreePeople’s entry in the LA2050 Challenge. If we receive the most votes, we’ll win a $100,000 grant to turn TreeMapLA into an even more amazing sustainability and urban planning platform. Vote for us here!