TreePeople officially names The Schuman Family Foundation Conference Center, a tribute to the foundation’s extraordinary investment in TreePeople’s mission.

Dr. Cassie Rauser becomes CEO of TreePeople. The Plants of Tovaangar interactive audio tour launches at Coldwater Canyon Park. The tour was made in partnership with The Broad and the Arts in California Parks Local Parks Grant Program.

Cindy Montañez becomes CEO of TreePeople. Montañez brings a strong environmental equity focus to TreePeople, improving communities around Los Angeles that have historically low tree canopy coverage through increased tree plantings and workforce development.

TreePeople announces its new logo. Adding a new twist to our classic spinning valley oak leaves, this updated design conveys a fresh sense of generational growth and momentum. The arching branch creates a globe-like feel, nodding to our collective, holistic mission to inspire a greener, more equitable future. South LA Eco-Lab kicks off, beginning a project that will transform a 3.9-square-mile area in the heart of South Los Angeles into a more climate-resilient community. TreePeople co-coordinates the Summit for Equity and Resilience in Water and facilitates the Disadvantaged Community and Tribal Involvement (DACTI) Program (also known as WaterTalks) to engage 107 underserved communities across Los Angeles County in planning a more equitable and sustainable water future.

TreePeople celebrates its 50th Anniversary. TreePeople is awarded $15.6 million to green 17 schoolyards in Los Angeles County.                                       

TreePeople helps lead the push for $150 million in state funding for greening schools. TreePeople conducts a restoration project with the USDA Forest Service and the Friendship Fund to keep Nevin’s Barberry (Berberis nevinii) from going extinct. The first Generation Earth Environmental Youth Summit was held. Youth Summits have taken place at Coldwater Canyon Park and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, drawing hundreds of students for hands-on environmental literacy activities. TreePeople participates in its first Pride Parade at the Inaugural WeHo Pride Parade in West Hollywood.

TreePeople’s plant production nursery receives Phytosanitary Accreditation for following best management practices for the prevention of soil borne pathogens, such as Phytophthora. These sanitation practices, combined with frequent monitoring and testing, allow TreePeople to produce healthy plant stock. TreePeople is one of only two nurseries in Los Angeles County that have been approved to provide plant stock for our Angeles National Forest projects. TreePeople expands into the Inland Empire.

TreePeople launches Learn @ Home in response to the State’s stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 pandemic. The interactive multilingual online program aimed to support kids, teachers, parents, and families through daily/weekly engaging content covering a wide range of environmental topics. TreePeople assumes the role of Watershed Coordinator for the Santa Clara River Watershed to build capacity and facilitate community and stakeholder engagement with the Safe, Clean Water Program. In this capacity, TreePeople serves as a connector between community members, advocates, and agencies to potential projects within the watershed that capture and collect rainwater to reduce the amount of trash and pollutants carried by surface runoff and increase regional water supply. Los Angeles County Tree Canopy Basic Viewer allows users to explore the existing and possible tree canopy coverage across Los Angeles County. The interactive map was created in collaboration with Loyola Marymount University, Chapman University, and the Los Angeles Center for Urban Natural Resources Sustainability.

TreePeople, California State Coastal Conservancy, and the City of San Fernando joined to launch Calles Verdes: a multi-benefit greening project that engages thousands of community and youth members to transform San Fernando into a model City for climate resilience. At least 750 trees will be planted and streets and parking lots will be redesigned and constructed to capture stormwater to bolster water supplies and reduce polluted runoff. TreePeople, in partnership with County Public Works, begins the Lawns to Landscapes program which offers single-family residences nature-based solutions intended to reduce stormwater runoff, improve water quality, and/or promote water infiltration and reuse. TreePeople begins facilitation of the Disadvantaged Community and Tribal Involvement (DACTI) Program, also called WaterTalks, for the California Department of Water Resources. In partnership with County Public Works, Council for Watershed Health, Stantec, Better World Group, Sacred Places, and 11 community-based organizations, the program is focused on generating and increasing community involvement in planning a sustainable water future for California through education workshops, conducting LA’s largest water equity needs assessment, and involving community in water infrastructure project planning and implementation across 107 underserved communities in LA County. TreePeople expands OurWaterLA, a diverse coalition of community leaders and organizations from across Los Angeles County united to create a strong water future. OurWaterLA helped to get Measure W passed and partners closely with County Public Works to ensure program implementation aligns with goals put forward in the ordinance. TreePeople is part of the Watts Rising Collaborative, awarded a Transformative Climate Communities Grant…

The National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council of the U.S. Forest Service awards the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative, a national partnership lead by TreePeople, to fund urban heat research. It is a ground-breaking partnership of major research institutions, which research and design the use of expanded tree canopy and other green technologies to cool our cities and protect our most vulnerable residents from the dangerous health impacts of heat-related climate change TreePeople completes the LA StormCatcher Pilot Project. The project is a collaboration between LADWP, LA Bureau of Sanitation and LA County Flood Control District, facilitated by TreePeople, to explore the challenges to and benefits from increased collaborative governance of water management. The pilot installed a half-dozen cutting edge residential rainwater catchment systems, featuring cisterns equipped with cloud-based monitoring and control technology that adjusts performance in real time based on forecast precipitation — releasing or retaining water to optimize tank capacity, onsite irrigation, groundwater recharge, runoff reduction and flood mitigation. The systems have been rigorously analyzed to reveal the full potential of residential rainwater capture at the regional scale.

TreePeople joins the California Environmental Literacy Task Force, a statewide initiative that is dedicated to supporting environmental literacy for all students. TreePeople helps lead, facilitate and guide the creation of the City of LA’s first ever Stormwater Capture Master Plan. TreePeople becomes a key partner on the team, along with LADWP and its engineering consultant, to guide the process through a two-year timeframe. TreePeople’s role helped to ensure the end result contained progressive projects and policies, included significant community engagement and support, and incorporated best practices TreePeople has provided from extensive research. The Plan determined how to supply up to 45% of our water locally.

TreePeople and The Energy Coalition partnered to organize and lead a delegation of policymakers and elected officials from throughout California—including representatives from federal, state, regional and local levels—to experience and evaluate a range of urban water- and climate-resilience solutions underway in Australia.