TreePeople has long believed in greening educational spaces: access to green space gives students a place to play and develop creative problem solving skills. Plus, research has shown a strong correlation between access to nature and better cognitive function, self-discipline, and impulse control, and suggests that greener campuses may help improve student attention spans. And at the…
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Volunteer Celebration 2014
August 4, 2014About a week ago, we hosted our annual Volunteer Celebration. This was a special opportunity for our highly dedicated volunteers to gather in a casual environment and get to know one another a bit better. We realize that it can be tough for staff and volunteers to get to know one another at forestry events,…
Getting Drought Smart: The Drought Solutions Tour as Inspiration
July 31, 2014Native plant species, rain chains, drip irrigation – and what on Earth is decomposed granite? In my quest for more information on the drought Los Angeles is facing and what I can do at home to cut water usage, I looked to TreePeople’s Drought Solutions Tour and Native Plant Walk, which is one of many…
TreePeople’s Policy Work: Transforming LA into a Climate- and Water-Resilient City
July 20, 2014Each week, TreePeople is out in the neighborhoods and surrounding mountains of Los Angeles, planting and caring for trees and native plants to ensure that our city has a growing, thriving urban ecosystem. But that’s not all we do – every day, we’re also working with agencies and policymakers at the city, county, state, and…
How to Kill Your Lawn
July 16, 2014Things are dry out there. Drought conditions are currently battering California and our changing climate only further puts us at risk when it comes to water security. Across the state, an average of 50% of residential water use goes towards landscaping, killing your lawn and replacing that non-functional turf with native plants is one of…
TreePeople Volunteer Takes on the Drought
July 14, 2014This past Sunday, TreePeople staff and volunteers participated in a special tree care event in North Hollywood. One of our enthusiastic Volunteer Supervisors, Vahagn Karapetyan, had noticed that the trees in his neighborhood were suffering, so he decided to take action. Vahagn Karapetyan has been volunteering with TreePeople for the past two and a half…
AB 2403 Sets the Stage for Stormwater Capture
July 9, 2014It doesn’t rain much in Los Angeles, but it does rain: in an average year, enough rain falls throughout Los Angeles County to supply 650,000 families with enough water to live off if we captured it. For this reason, for more than twenty years TreePeople has been championing rainwater harvesting as a key part of…
Fighting Drought One Lawn at a Time: LADWP’s Cash In Your Lawn Program
July 2, 2014One hundred percent of California is now in a severe drought, and Los Angeles County is even worse off, classified by the United States Drought Monitor as in “extreme drought” conditions. Now, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is calling on Angelenos to do their part to conserve water—and as an incentive,…
TreeMapLA: The Key to LA’s Urban Ecosystem
June 30, 2014As you may have already heard, TreePeople is really excited about TreeMapLA, a tool that will allow Angelenos to map trees and watershed solutions–like rain barrels and rain gardens–to help all of Los Angeles learn just how valuable our urban forest and watersheds are!
Volunteers in Action: Topanga Creek Restoration
June 27, 2014Nearly every weekend, TreePeople and our volunteers head up into the Santa Monica Mountains to restore the natural landscape. Through our Mountain Restoration programs, we revegetate the ecosystem—planting a full spectrum of native plants from wildflowers to trees in order to restore the biological function of the land—and remove invasive species so that plants, animals, and…
5 Ways to Help Trees Out This Summer
June 18, 2014Summer is here! The June solstice occurs on Saturday at 3:51am, ushering in a season of celebration, relaxation – and heat. The next few months are likely to be some of the toughest of the drought, so it’s important that we take care of our trees so they’ll make it through this season.
The Importance of Environmental Education
June 13, 2014Earlier this week, The Nature of Cities held an online roundtable about the importance of urban environmental education and what makes an effective educational program. Featured in the roundtable was TreePeople’s Senior Manager for Environmental Education, Candice Russell. The Nature of Cities has allowed us to repost Candice’s essay here, so read on to learn…