Blog

ACTION ALERT: Make Your Voice Heard. Protect our City’s Trees!

Angelenos, a huge opportunity exists right now for you to take action to protect our City’s urban forest! Did you know, the City of LA has launched a 30-year sidewalk repair program? This was triggered by a city settlement that secured more than $1.4 billion to make our sidewalks more accessible for all Angelenos. TreePeople…

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Parting Thoughts of a Volunteer Manager

I’ve been reflecting on my time as TreePeople’s Volunteer Manager as I prepare to take on life’s next adventure to pursue my graduate degree in Urban Planning at UCLA this Fall. Over the past two years, I’ve been moved by the community of volunteers I get to work with every day. I’ll never forget the…

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Jim & Eileen: The “It” Couple of Once Upon a Canyon Night

Our Director of Park Operations, Jim Hardie and his wife, Eileen Knight have been the “it” couple around TreePeople for many years and contributed so much to the organization, but their real pride and joy has been our summer entertainment series, Once Upon a Canyon Night. After 15 seasons of beautiful music, hysterical comedy and…

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How LA Teens Save Trees from Summer Heat

The future of LA’s trees is in the hands of the next generation of Angelenos this summer. After five years of historic drought and extreme heat, many of LA’s trees are thirsty and vulnerable. And without healthy trees shading campuses and communities, students suffer— the air they breathe isn’t clean, they don’t have access to…

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#CoolMyCity: LA’s Urban Cooling Collaborative

LA just increased its coolness factor by $320,000! On the heels of a sweltering summer, the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council of the U.S. Forest Service awarded the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative (LAUCC), a national partnership led by TreePeople, a $320,000 grant to fund life-saving urban heat research. The LAUCC is a…

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6 Ways to Be Cool and Stay Cool this Summer

Many people assume that LA is a desert— it’s not. Actually, we are one of the few places on Earth that enjoy a Mediterranean climate. That’s one of the reasons we all love living here. Regions like ours enjoy mild winters and warm summers. But you may have noticed that summers are feeling extra hot…

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200 Volunteers, 57 Trees and a Hopeful Future

“One tree is magic when you have none, two trees are hope when you have one, and three trees are a forest for learning, healing, and dreams.” Rosa Furumoto, Parent Pioneers Last month, TreePeople, along with our passionate partners at Parent Pioneers, transformed the campus of San Fernando Elementary School. Our team went in and…

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LA Teens Face Off at Streets to Sea

LA’s water pollution doesn’t stand a chance against our youth. This spring, our Generation Earth program hosted the yearly Streets to the Sea Challenge. The projects presented inspired and taught us all so much. What is Streets to the Sea, you ask? Each year, Generation Earth asks middle and high school students from all over…

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The Strength a Tree Gave a Family Battling Cancer

Tyson was only 7 years old when he and his father Rick planted their first tree together. That was also when Tyson was diagnosed with cancer. Rick’s connection to nature, and to that tree they planted, gave him strength throughout the tough years ahead. Nature is Rick’s refuge, his place to reboot, which is why…

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4 Gardening Tips to Fight Runoff

Water is precious. Especially as temperatures rise and the rainy season takes a vacation. Often in the grips of the summer heat, people will douse their lawns with their sprinklers causing “dry-weather runoff” to rush onto the pavement, into the street sweeping up pollutants along the way, into stormdrains to be dumped in the ocean….

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LA’s Drought Conundrum

So the drought is over, right? The short answer is well, maybe. As the summer season swings into action and temperatures start to rise, it’s the perfect time to remember that as Angelenos, we all have the responsibility to act as stewards for our water and urban trees — even during a record-wet year like…

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Re-Igniting the Teaching and Protective Power of Earth Day:

Just 3 months after the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, I took my first steps on the path to found TreePeople. I was 15, and what I learned was captivating and urgent. I’d experienced years of air pollution burning my lungs, growing up in Los Angeles; but it was at an Earth Day…

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