Planting

Community Forestry

The Community Forestry program empowers environmentally stressed communities with the support, education, and tools they need to create green neighborhoods and become resilient in the face of climate impacts. Through the Community Forestry Program, TreePeople is taking on direct organizing efforts to inspire, engage, and support climate resilient communities. To be true partners in these communities, many of which are facing ongoing economic and environmental distress, we thoughtfully engage in understanding their unique needs and work alongside them to achieve our shared goals. With the help of the community, TreePeople has already planted over a million trees in cities where they’re needed most.

TreePeople works in many of Southern California’s environmentally stressed communities and focuses on those most impacted by, extreme heat, toxic pollution, and seasonal flooding. Planting trees in these communities is one step towards healing from historically disproportionate environmental impacts.

Community Forestry Project Map

Current Project Areas:

  • Distributing 125 trees to residents
  • Planting 500 shade trees in public spaces

Accelerated warehouse and industrial development, pollution from five major freeways, and climate change effects such as extreme heat are harming residents in the Inland Empire communities. Recognizing the need to develop resilience at this critical time, TreePeople is working with the City of Colton to support plant and care for trees in alignment with the City’s recently completed Urban Forest Management Plan.

Commerce
  • Planting 1,700 shade trees in public spaces

The City of Commerce, a heavily industrial center, has an average of just 5% tree canopy cover – among the lowest of any of Los Angeles County’s 88 municipalities. This research has been conducted using high-resolution imagery and LiDAR data to identify urban areas most in need of tree canopy. TreePeople’s efforts in Commerce have included the creation of entirely new tree planting sites based on this data, to promote greening in a region covered with gray infrastructure. Ongoing tree care will be instrumental to combat the extreme heat effects that trees will endure, before they can expand the urban canopy and cool the area in years to come.

Cudahy
  • Distributing 200 trees to residents
  • Planting 600 shade trees in public spaces

TreePeople has partnered with the Cudahy community on previous urban greening initiatives such as free residential fruit tree distributions to residents. Now, TreePeople will engage this Southeast Los Angeles community to plant trees in as many suitable locations as possible.

  • Distributing 200 trees to residents
  • Planting 800 shade trees in public spaces

In the heart of the San Gabriel Valley, El Monte sees particulate matter air pollution from Interstate 10, Interstate 605, and nearby industrial centers where there was once a focal point in the San Gabriel and Rio Hondo River watersheds. TreePeople is underway on a widespread greening effort to plant 800 trees, through an approach that empowers and trains young people.

Downey

Downey

  • Distributing 1,720 trees to residents
  • Planting 6,345 shade trees in public spaces

TreePeople focuses on serving under-resourced communities facing historic environmental and racial injustice, where cutting-edge data show a lack of trees with opportunity for urban greening. In 2019, TreePeople demonstrated its commitment to this approach through a partnership with several cities in the Gateway region, adversely impacted by the pollution of the I-5 Freeway. This effort leveraged the support of volunteers, community members, stakeholders, local businesses, and faith-based organizations in order to plant, adopt, and care for trees.

Huntington Park

Huntington Park

  • Planting 1,400 shade trees in public spaces

In 2014, TreePeople began grassroots efforts in Huntington Park to transform a landscape containing little green space and tree canopy. Through an effort led by staff and volunteers from the community, a campaign to plant more than a thousand public trees has been successfully completed. TreePeople continues to plant further trees and bring related resources to the community, such as urban forest management planning and outdoor environmental education.

Inglewood

Inglewood

  • Distributing 1,000 trees to residents
  • Planting 800 shade trees in public spaces

Several years ago, TreePeople supported the development of a strategic greening plan for the City of Inglewood. Now, with added resources and capacity, TreePeople will help the city make good on the greening goals set out by the plan. With strong support from the City, TreePeople has begun a campaign to plant trees strategically, where community priorities have indicated greatest need.

Lynwood
  • Distributing 200 trees to residents
  • Planting 1,000 shade trees in public spaces

Our work in Lynwood reflects years of on-the-ground understanding, serving the residents of the Southeast Los Angeles County region. Lynwood was also identified as a priority in our mapping of the LA County urban tree canopy, initiated by TreePeople and partners at Loyola Marymount University Center for Urban Resilience, the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Lab, and Savatree Consulting Group, with funding from the US Forest Service and CAL FIRE. TreePeople has used our tree planting and care program as a vehicle to engage residents, youth and families, and volunteer support, kicked-off with an event of over 100 community members.

  • Distributing 450 trees to residents
  • Planting 500 shade trees in public spaces

TreePeople, in partnership with the City of Paramount, recently collaborated to outline a strategic tree canopy prioritization report – also utilizing results of our mapping partnership project in high-resolution imagery and LiDAR data on the LA County urban tree canopy. This report for Paramount will complement the creation of a full formal urban forest management plan, in which TreePeople will assist the City in meeting its goals for climate resilience. Once completed, the Urban Forest Management Plan will provide the guiding principles for future tree planting.

  • Distributing 125 trees to residents
  • Planting 500 shade trees in public spaces

Three months of the year, Rialto feels average daily temperatures of 92 degrees or above. These extreme heat periods are predicted to soar even higher as climate change and development take their toll. Unfortunately, children see some of the worst of these urban heat island effects in heavily-paved schools, with a lack of public greenspaces. TreePeople will partner with both the City of Rialto and Rialto Unified School District to plant trees across high-priority areas such as school campuses and public spaces.

Riverside
  • Distributing 1,000 trees to residents
  • Planting 1,000 shade trees in public spaces

In the summer of 1973, the first community action in what would become known as TreePeople began in the mountains above Riverside, California. Those early efforts by teens to help protect and restore the San Bernardino National Forest blossomed into Southern California’s largest environmental movement – mobilizing 3 million volunteers to plant 3 million trees. Through this campaign in East Riverside, TreePeople has returned home to the Inland Empire, where more than 60 volunteers helped break ground on TreePeople’s ambitious new project to help plant hundreds of public trees and distribute free additional trees to homes in the community.

San Fernando

San Fernando

  • Distributing 1,100 trees to residents
  • Planting 1,250 shade trees in public spaces

TreePeople has supported the City of San Fernando’s efforts to become a model for underserved, environmental justice-impacted communities seeking climate resilience. TreePeople’s tree equity work in the community is complemented by additional conservation work through ongoing partnerships with the Native American tribal community, outdoor environmental education, stormwater capture conversions, and public parks revitalization efforts.

  • Distributing 2,000 trees to residents
  • Planting 4,000 shade trees in public spaces

TreePeople has partnered with the South LA Eco-Lab Collaborative in order to transform a 3.9-square mile area in the heart of South Los Angeles into a more climate-resilient community. This collaborative effort has been recently set into motion through local on-the-ground advocacy, with more plans to grow on the way.

South Gate

South Gate

  • Distributing 200 trees to residents
  • Planting 1,600 shade trees in public spaces

TreePeople strives to be a strong partner for the communities that make up Southeast Los Angeles (SELA). There has been a natural transition into South Gate as a result of related urban forestry efforts in neighboring communities. As one of the largest communities in SELA, TreePeople looks forward to the opportunity to plant a significant number of trees and distribute fruit and shade trees to residents.

Watts

Watts

  • Distributing 1,700 trees to residents
  • Planting 850 shade trees in public spaces

TreePeople is leading an effort to expand the urban tree canopy in Watts, as a part of a more significant effort to bring environmental justice to the community. As a part of a larger climate resilience movement, TreePeople is strategically planting trees to promote active outdoor living and shade cooling, in key pedestrian corridors prioritized by the community. TreePeople is nearing completion of its tree planting campaign, now entering the tree maintenance phase.