Planting 500 million new trees would bring every neighborhood in every city to a Tree Equity Score of 100. Photo Credit: Liz Putnam Photography / American Forests

ON THE HEELS of the hottest summer in recorded history, you are probably feeling grateful that trees are a “magical device” to help protect our cities from climate change, neighborhood-by-neighborhood, cooling the air while scrubbing smog and carbon dioxide alike. In fact, trees are so magical, research shows that they make people happier and smarter simply by looking at them!

That’s why American Forests believes it is a moral imperative for our organization and the nation to address the disproportionate prevalence of these life-saving devices in neighborhoods that are wealthy and predominantly white. With so much at stake, I’m very proud that this summer we have helped advance some of the biggest moves on Tree Equity yet.

Let’s start with the hard realities of the inequitable tree cover we have in our cities today. We recently released version 2.0 of American Forests’ Tree Equity Score tool with even better data and user options. Our latest data shows that the lowest-income neighborhoods in America have on average 26% less tree cover and are on average 6 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than higher-income areas. And neighborhoods with the highest concentration of people of color — regardless of income levels — have on average 38% less tree cover and are on average 13 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than neighborhoods with the lowest concentration.

As temperatures continue to rise and summers become hotter, neighborhoods that lack trees and already face greater health burdens will be disproportionally impacted. Photo Credit: Joel Clark / American Forests

Because of the way urban heat islands function to store and radiate heat, extra heat in these neighborhoods is sustained through the night. Especially in homes with no air conditioning, such prolonged heat stress puts people at risk for heat-related illness and death. Research led by Duke University projects that heat-related deaths in the United States — already more than 12,000 annually — could reach nearly 100,000 per year by 2100. This immense threat will be far greater in the neighborhoods that lack trees and already face greater health burdens.

We need a holistic response to such a dire threat, which must include bringing more trees to all parts of our cities, especially those at highest risk. To that end, American Forests is proud to have helped catalyze a swelling Tree Equity movement across America. Community-based organizations in the most impacted neighborhoods are leading the action in concert with mayors, municipal agencies, companies, nonprofits and civil society actors such as churches.

Tree Equity Score is part of our movement leadership, giving these diverse actors the ability to prioritize where to invest and how to benchmark their impact. Tree Equity Score 2.0 makes this tool even more valuable for needs like planning and prioritizing within a city-wide Tree Equity program.

The burgeoning Tree Equity movement also got a big lift this summer from the Inflation Reduction Act enacted in the last Congress. Thanks to leadership from Senator Cory Booker, Senator Debbie Stabenow and Representative Donald McEachin, this legislation provided a world-leading $1.5 billion in grant funding for climate and equity-focused urban forestry. The first $1 billion in open grants was awarded this summer after an intensive, competitive process. The interest in this funding was so strong that applicants temporarily crashed the Forest Service servers.

American Forests will be working to help grantees design and implement successful Tree Equity programs using our tools like Tree Equity Score, our climate-informed urban forestry guidance and much more. We are also playing a special role through our new Tree Equity Catalyst Fund, in which we help cities, frontline organizations and non-traditional partners — like youth and faith organizations — to access funding and technical assistance to enter into this work.

America is ready for Tree Equity. We are heartened by a poll American Forests helped to commission showing 89% support across party lines for urban forests as a natural climate solution. People understand and value the way that millions more urban trees will provide cooler temperatures and cleaner air. We are already working to make sure that we build public and political support to sustain this kind of public investment into the future, and we appreciate all that you do to help make American Forests’ Tree Equity leadership possible.

For more news and updates from Jad, follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @JadDaley

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Dr. Darrell Street instructs students at Ruston High School on the proper procedure for planting trees on Dec. 8, 2022, at an event in which Weyerhaeuser employee volunteers joined the students to plant 33 trees at Duncan Park, in an area of Ruston, La. with a low Tree Equity Score, and then another five trees at the high school. Photo Credit: Kevin Alexander / American Forests

ON A WINTER DAY in 2022 in Ruston, La., Dr. Darrell Street crouched down in a large hole in the ground and looked up at the circle of high school students around him. They leaned on their shovels as he asked what they thought they should do next in the process of planting a large sapling. Should they just plop it in the hole, or did they need to do something else first?

The students eagerly offered that they should measure the hole and then backfill with dirt to make it the right size before planting. It was a process they had learned as part of a new greening event focused on Tree Equity and tree-related careers organized by American Forests with the support of Weyerhaeuser, a sustainable forestry and wood products manufacturing company with operations across the United States and Canada. The hands-on planting event at Ruston High School was the finale of a multiweek curriculum that guides high school students through an inquiry-based learning process about green jobs that protect and enhance our environment.

Weyerhaeuser approached American Forests with the idea after being impressed by the organization’s Tree Equity Score platform, which assesses tree cover in areas of the U.S. with at least 500,000 residents. As a company active in many smaller urban clusters and rural areas, Weyerhaeuser was interested in promoting Tree Equity in less populated places. The company also wanted to provide educational opportunities for rural youth to learn about careers in forestry and other aspects of the green economy.

The idea grew out of Weyerhaeuser’s 3 by 30 Sustainability Ambitions, launched in 2020, which intensify the company’s focus around three key areas: contributing to climate solutions, helping provide sustainable homes and supporting rural communities. The result of this collaboration — a modular curriculum titled Tree Equity Curriculum: Exploring Green STEAM Careers — educates students about green jobs, guides them through collecting and analyzing Tree Equity Score data for their area, and has them participate in a hands-on greening project.

The curriculum includes five lessons and takes four to six weeks to teach in entirety. In the first lesson, students identify their interests, strengths and skills, and think through which kind of job they might want to pursue. In the second activity, they determine their Holland’s Occupational Personality Type by taking the “Find Your Green Jobs” quiz from Project Learning Tree.

The third section covers ecosystem services and jobs that protect and enhance them. The fourth investigates the Tree Equity Score, including an exercise in which students work in groups to figure out which local Census block groups have a score lower than 80 — indicating a priority for more tree cover. This exercise culminates with the greening event. The fifth lesson has students reflect on what they learned and whether they might pursue a green career.

The curriculum has been free online since going live in October 2022. American Forests and Weyerhaeuser chose three locations in which to officially pilot it: Ruston, La., and Tacoma, Wash., which implemented it for 200-250 students each in fall 2022 and spring 2023; and Natchitoches, La., which will do so this fall.

Weyerhaeuser has long-standing operations and is active in all three communities. In Ruston and Tacoma, Weyerhaeuser employee volunteers came to classrooms to talk about their careers and also joined students at the tree-planting events.

“On planting day they’re able to talk through why they’re planting these trees and why the Weyerhaeuser employees are passionate about it,” says Eboni Hall, American Forests’ director of career exploration and development. “It’s about being able to expose them to the green job opportunities in the field. A lot of students don’t have that real-world, hands-on experience.”

The curriculum is receiving positive feedback from participants and is attracting enthusiastic attention. Other partners have expressed interest in expanding the program, and American Forests has plans to implement the curriculum in Phoenix, Detroit, again in Tacoma and in other locations next year.

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American Forests President and CEO Jad Daley and Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz pause from shoveling mulch for a photo moment. Photo Credit: Rachel Terlep / Washington State Department of Natural Resources

State and local leaders recognized the need for urgent action to increase tree canopy equitably and save lives in the future. With a shared ambition to boost Tree Equity in disadvantaged neighborhoods disproportionately suffering the negative effects of extreme heat, American Forests and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources gathered in April at Seattle’s Roxhill Park to announce the launch of the Washington State Tree Equity Collaborative — the first statewide commitment to elevate Tree Equity Scores.

“We’re going to collaborate to help build rigorous and inclusive urban forestry programs,” Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz told the crowd over children’s shouts and laughter from the nearby playground. “It’s not just about planting new trees. We must protect existing tree canopy as well. And that means developing a workforce…to advance equity.”

Tree Equity Collaborative members make multiple commitments: to use the best available data and science (including American Forests’ Tree Equity Score) to evaluate areas in greatest need of tree canopy cover; to seek funding and resources toward maintaining and increasing tree canopy cover in areas of greatest need, with a focus on equitable distribution; and to develop a collective action plan to support a measurable improvement in Tree Equity in Washington’s cities by 2030.

Among the first to sign pledges to join the Collaborative were Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards, the Carl Maxey Center in Spokane, the 300 Trees organization in Bellevue and the Duwamish Alive Coalition. Mayor Harrell announced Seattle’s plans to develop a Tree Canopy Equity and Resilience Plan, implement a policy that requires trees be planted for every site-appropriate tree that is removed from city property, and plant 8,000 trees on both public and private properties as well as an additional 40,000 trees in parks and natural areas. The plans also include performing important maintenance on 40,000 trees across the city.

In May, the city of Yakima received a $20,000 grant from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources to develop an urban forest management plan, building momentum as the group grows in strength and shared ambition.

As unprecedented resources for urban and community forestry are allocated to cities, states and nonprofits across the country, opportunity abounds. “We can all have the life-giving benefits of trees on a daily basis,” said American Forests President and CEO Jad Daley during the Collaborative launch. “We’re going to make it happen in Washington State, and we’re going to lead the country and the world on how to get this done with the right kinds of partnerships.”

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Trainees attend an annual conflict resolution session through Landforce, a workforce development nonprofit based in Pittsburgh. This is a recommended training in American Forests’ Arboriculture Pre-Employment Curriculum in which crew members learn how to strengthen relationships between individuals as well as social connections within communities. Photo Credit: Brian Cohen / Landforce

AROUND THE UNITED STATES, the tree-care industry is a promising but underrecognized employment option for many workers without higher education or specialized training. These jobs are stable and well compensated, offer opportunities for advancement, and contribute to the fast-moving green economy. Yet many communities that could benefit most from such attractive job opportunities have historically been underrepresented in this field.

American Forests has set out to help change that as part of the mission of its Tree Equity work. Its Career Pathways Initiative does so in part by providing tools to tree-care employment training programs around the country and connecting training program professionals so they can learn from each other.

These programs assist job candidates, especially those from underrepresented communities, in preparing to enter and thrive in the tree-care industry. American Forests’ Arboriculture Pre-Employment Curriculum gives these programs a practical resource to guide or supplement pre-employment training. It includes modules on work-readiness skills like financial literacy, conflict resolution and resume writing. It also provides training in basic tree-care capabilities such as tree identification, safety, climbing and pruning. The curriculum is available free online and has already been downloaded by 200 unique training programs, municipalities, private employers, educational institutions and more since its release in October 2022.

In December 2022, American Forests launched the Tree Equity Workforce Network, whose members gather virtually every month to attend content-based webinars and participate in Community Labs for networking, sharing and learning. There are close to 90 official members, though new people drop in regularly, and events average 30–40 participants.

American Forests’ Director of Career Pathways Tiffany Mrotek has plans to create sub-groups or specialty programming for the group, and her goal is to rack up 100 members by year-end. But, she says, “The number doesn’t matter so much to me as what use people are getting out of it. The network is for the members, and the activities are driven by the stated needs of event attendees. We’ve heard from our network members that this is filling a gap and what’s been needed. It’s been fulfilling to watch this bloom.”

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Craig Young, regional biologist with the National Park Service, plants a young oak at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in March 2022. On this day, the Park Service and conservation corps members planted 1,900 trees. So far, they have planted 6,200 trees total to restore the forest to its state in 1816. Photo Credit: Nathan Cornetet / American Forests

“WE REACHED our new home about the time the State came into the union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals in the woods. There I grew up.” — President Abraham Lincoln

On the edge of the nation’s frontier, the untamed southern Indiana woods helped shape a young Abraham Lincoln. And more than 200 years later, his legacy and a desire to restore the land around his boyhood home are shaping those same woods now.

When Lincoln’s family moved to Little Pigeon Creek in 1816, the forest was thick with towering oaks and hickories, and teeming with black bears, white-tailed deer and wild turkey. Lincoln’s family and other early settlers cleared much of the land for farming. By the late 20th century, maple and tulip trees that the Civilian Conservation Corps planted in the 1930s were widespread on the site.

In the 1980s the National Park Service, which operates Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, set out to bring 12 acres of the forest back to the state it was in when the 16th president grew up splitting logs and reading books. That comprehensive project has thrived more recently with an infusion of support from Bulleit Whiskey, the muscle of a young adult conservation corps and assistance from American Forests.

Oaks are considered hardy and relatively climate-resilient but need lots of light to thrive. The understory, packed with maple trees, didn’t allow young oaks to mature. In 2017, the Park Service began clearing the understory of trees and plants that otherwise would impede the growth of new hickory and oak trees. Since then the Park Service and partners have planted 6,200 trees, including 2,000 white oaks, in the 12-acre area immediately adjacent to the Pioneer Cemetery, where Lincoln’s mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln is buried.

Giving the new seedlings the best chance to thrive is a labor of love — and fire. To reach the overstory and the sun, the young trees will need to out-compete surrounding plants that threaten to crowd them out. The National Park Service and the corps have given the fledgling seedlings a leg up by clearing vines and small plants within a few feet of each young tree.

Done by hand, it’s intensive maintenance. But “scientifically it gives them a major growth burst,” says Austin Rempel, director of forest restoration at American Forests. Support from Bulleit paid for tree planting and cycles of maintenance.

Ideally, the Park Service and its partners use fire — a process that once naturally thinned the forest — to help maintain it, says Jordan C. Bell, project manager with the Park Service. Earlier this year, the agency successfully used fire in an area where some of the first trees had been planted.

White mesh tubes or “baskets” help protect the youngest seedlings from another threat — the four-legged kind.

“In 2023,” Schier says, “we’re still looking for ways to keep the critters from eating our crops whether its corn on the farm or oaks in the forest.”

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American Forests, Casey Trees and Ward 8 Woods volunteers plant trees, pick up trash and remove invasive plants at Bald Eagle Recreation Center in Washington, D.C. during a fall 2022 planting event sponsored by ZYRTEC®. Photo Credit: Bryan Dozier / American Forests

TREES ARE ESSENTIAL to human health. They filter the air we breathe and the water we drink. They cool our communities by decreasing surface temperatures and providing life-saving shade. But ask any allergy sufferer how they feel about trees and pollen, and you may be met with some skepticism about planting more.

Enter ZYRTEC®, a trusted allergy brand that knows all about the potential perils of pollen. ZYRTEC® and American Forests have a common mission: healthier and happier people and planet. In support of this, ZYRTEC® is committed to creating initiatives that help maintain and establish life-saving infrastructures, like trees.

Jenn Lovell, head of U.S. Allergy, who leads the adult and children’s ZYRTEC® and Benadryl® businesses, says the brand maintains that all people should have access to the benefits of such initiatives and infrastructures. “An ideal future to us is people from all backgrounds having equitable access to resources that help provide a healthier planet and healthier lives. Climate change continues to impact our planet and allergy sufferers as well — we want to do our part.”

Research reveals that higher temperatures and fewer frost days are resulting in a more intense and extended allergy season, up to 20 days longer than decades ago. A natural way to help curb rising temperatures is by planting trees.

“ZYRTEC® identified an important need to extend relief beyond our products and bring relief to communities and the planet,” says Lovell.

ZYRTEC® first partnered with American Forests in 2022 to support Tree Equity in three key cities: Phoenix, Detroit and Washington, D.C. Recognizing the correlation among trees, allergies and the wellbeing of communities, ZYRTEC® made a commitment to invest in trees in the areas that need them most. Through the creation of the ZYRTEC® ReLEAF Project, the brand formalized a multi-year commitment to fund American Forests’ research and help advance Tree Equity. In 2023, the project is focused on Detroit.

In Detroit, dubbed the epicenter of childhood asthma in Michigan, arborists and crews who plant trees must take special consideration to mitigate the potential impacts of tree pollen on those prone to respiratory distress.

How do we push forward in our work to plant more trees without causing additional stress to vulnerable populations? The answer is a reliance on research, community engagement and strategic partnerships.

“At American Forests, we lead with data and science,” explains Jenni Shockling, senior manager of urban forestry in Detroit. “We use resources like the Ogren Plant Allergy Scale (OPALS) to help inform species selections.”

For example, OPALS indicates that mulberry trees produce a lot of pollen that trigger seasonal allergies, while maple trees are classified as better for allergy-sufferers. With some species, research indicates that selecting a female is the most allergy-friendly option.

In addition to relying on research, American Forests listens to the communities in which it plants. When residents express concern about tree pollen and allergies, urban foresters and planting partners will either select more allergy-friendly species or will not plant trees directly in front of their homes. American Forests also provides education on what times of year trees produce pollen and how to use resources, like the ZYRTEC® AllergyCast App, to identify high-pollen days. Armed with this information, residents can take preventive actions like shutting windows to reduce pollen exposure.

American Forests President and CEO Jad Daley stands with social media influencer Ayana Bailey and her son at a ZYRTEC®-sponsored planting in Washington, D.C. By engaging influencers and celebrities, ZYRTEC® hopes to elevate the issue of Tree Equity and get others involved. Photo Credit: Bryan Dozier / American Forests

So far, the support from ZYRTEC® has enabled the planting of 166 trees. In the next 20 years, it is estimated that those trees will capture and store 250,474 pounds of carbon and cool surrounding air by up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit. What’s more, by engaging influencers and celebrities, ZYRTEC® hopes to elevate the issue of Tree Equity and get others involved.

“The issue of Tree Equity is not necessarily widely known,” says Lovell. “We are hopeful that by sharing more information on the need and impact of American Forests’ Tree Equity work, we can educate individuals and potentially get more organizations involved.”

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A U.S. Forest Service staffer points out the root structure of a seedling grown at the agency’s Coeur d’Alene nursery in Idaho. The nursery is one of only eight federal Forest Service nurseries in the country. Photo Credit: U.S. Forest Service

In March, Patrick Holmes, American Forests’ senior policy advisor for resilient forests, outlined the organization’s priorities for the bill before the House Committee on Agriculture:

1. Authorize and increase funding for the Reforestation, Nursery, and Genetics Resources Program.

2. Establish a new competitive grant program for reforestation research, nursery, seed collection/storage and workforce needs.

3. Create nimble loan and loan guarantee financing for nurseries serving public, private and urban reforestation and recovery needs.

Scaling up capacity for our nurseries must be done urgently to support the pace of climate-adapted reforestation needed on our landscapes. As Holmes told Congress, “Unleashing partnerships right now, at a time where capacity is one of the greatest limiting factors in accomplishing our work, will be critical to everyone’s collective success.”

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A teacher helps a student at the College for Creative Studies select Zelkova wood to create a narrative art piece as part of the d.Tree Studio curriculum. Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Wright Museum

College for Creative Studies woodshop students learned about African American culture and history, trees in Detroit and climate justice while making wood into art. Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Wright Museum

College for Creative Studies woodshop students honed their woodworking skills and artistic thought process while making projects from harvested wood. Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Wright Museum

Leslie Tom, one of the leaders of the d.Tree Studio course at the College for Creative Studies, created a piece inspired by African American drumming and dance. Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Wright Museum

The exhibit featured a display on American Forests’ Tree Equity work alongside a monitor playing video interviews with the students and makers. Photo Credit: Ian Leahy / American Forests

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