TURNING DOWN A JOB was the best decision Kris Cameron ever made. He’d finally gotten an offer from a restaurant supply wholesaler in April 2023 after a long, frustrating search. Although he was eager to secure a paid position, he felt anxious about his lack of training and job experience. He had also been accepted into an eight-week, paid career training program that was scheduled to begin on the same day as the supply company role. After a lot of deliberation and some gentle encouragement from his cousin, Cameron chose the training program over the job — a decision that changed his future.

“I fell in love with it,” he recently reflected. “It was everything I was looking for in my life.”

Cameron grew up in Tampa, Fla., where he traded his last two years of high school for a life in the streets, dealing drugs — a move that ultimately landed him in prison. After he was released in 2020, he knew a fresh start would require a major change. So he moved north to his birth city of Providence, R.I., to be close to family. It was not long after his relocation that Cameron applied for the Green Reentry Job Training program at Garden Time, a local nonprofit dedicated to preparing incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals for green industry jobs.

DIVERSIFYING AN INDUSTRY… AND THE WAYS TO ENTER IT

Urban forestry requires trained workers with specific qualifications related to planting and caring for trees. There is a shortage of these skilled employees as the older, white men who have historically dominated the field retire. Not only are seasoned experts aging out of the profession, but as climate impacts like extreme heat grow, so too does the need for people who can help expand and maintain tree cover in cities across the country. An estimated 173,000 new tree-care jobs need to be filled by 2028.

The grant funding supported Garden Time in incorporating higher-level technical tree training into its Green Reentry program. Meanwhile, Tucson Clean and Beautiful, a 40-year-old organization that focuses largely on urban forestry and shade equity, with special attention to rainwater harvesting, was able to offer a part-time six-month pre-employment program for climate-vulnerable young people from areas with low tree canopy cover. And the training at The Works, a well-established organization that meets housing and other community needs, spoke to its full-tree philosophy by incorporating nursery work, milling and lumbering into the curriculum.

CONNECTING TREE EQUITY AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

Ronrico “Rico” Reames never pictured himself working with trees, gaining knowledge about them, or understanding their importance. And he certainly never imagined finding himself in Overton Park’s Old Forest, in the heart of his native Memphis, Tenn., hugging a tree. But he did all of that — and more — as part of The Works’ Tree CPR training program led by Kayla Stuart.

“I didn’t really even know we had trees until the class came around,” he says, referencing neighborhoods like Klondike in North Memphis where tree cover is extremely low, resulting in higher temperatures and poorer air quality. “When everybody got through, we wanted to save or plant a tree.”

Memphis has a population of roughly 700,000 people, about 70% of which is Black and about a third of which lives below the poverty line. The city is home to some of the poorest zip codes in the country, with high rates of unemployment, the result of decades of systemic injustices. And like in most urban places in the United States, those areas of Memphis have far fewer trees than the whiter, higher-income neighborhoods.

In fact, across U.S. cities, lower-income communities tend to have 26% less tree cover and are almost 6 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than wealthier ones. Communities of color — regardless of income — tend to have 38% less tree cover and are almost 13 degrees hotter than white communities.

American Forests is leading a national Tree Equity movement aimed at addressing this social justice issue. Tree Equity is ensuring all people, regardless of race or income, have access to the benefits of trees. But, Tree Equity is about more than just planting trees in the neighborhoods that most need them. It is also about ensuring the individuals living in those communities that lack jobs are provided paid opportunities to care for those trees.

“We know that neighborhoods of color and lower-income neighborhoods have less tree cover,” says Vikram Krishnamurthy, senior director of American Forests’ careers and opportunities work. “We also know there are long-standing inequities when it comes to employment. Our goal is putting those two things together, engaging new professionals in urban forestry who are from the very areas where we need trees the most.”

The Tree CPR program aims to do just that. After 37-year-old Shauna Acker moved to Memphis from Chicago 14 years ago and became a mother, she found herself more aware of the impacts of climate change and of the tree-cover inequities in both cities she has called home. She was pregnant with her second child when she learned about the job training program, and she decided to apply.

“No one thought that a group of African Americans from the City of Memphis is going to want to learn about urban forestry and agriculture. But we did. We came every day, and we participated,” she says. Acker is currently focused full-time on caring for her young children. But when she decides to rejoin the workforce, she is eager to find a job in urban forestry.

Back up north, Cameron is doing his part to expand Tree Equity by planting trees with Groundwork Rhode Island in low-cover areas like South Providence and Central Falls. It’s a dream job that he says he prayed for. He feels like he’s getting paid to learn and is motivated by getting to do good, helpful work in the community: “I feel like I’m a part of something that’s bigger than myself.”

IMPLEMENTING A WHOLE-PERSON APPROACH

Tree Equity can’t be achieved without a workforce to make it happen, and developing one that’s passionate and effective requires an intentional, holistic approach that prioritizes people and meets individuals where they are.

Urban forestry workforce development and training has historically been focused on the profession of tree care and arboriculture, explains Krishnamurthy. But in reality, urban forestry is an interdisciplinary professional practice that involves the collaboration of city governments, engineers and planners, communities and citizen advocates, neighborhood groups, volunteer groups, and faith groups.

As a result, he says, the skillsets of urban foresters, particularly young people entering the field, really need to be diversified: “It’s not just about tree care and tree knowledge, or even the care of collections of trees. It’s a practice that involves cultural competencies.”

For that reason, a central goal of all three training programs is to strengthen life skills, often referred to as soft skills, such as problem solving, public speaking, navigating change, building resilience, fostering relationships and honing creativity. These lessons are foundational for a successful career, in tree care or not.

“With green jobs or arboriculture, and within workforce development, we take this kind of cog-to-the-machine approach, where we want to train people with these technical skills to be able to fill this role within an institution,” says Angelantonio Enriquez Breault, climate equity workforce and education director at Tucson Clean and Beautiful.

“We’re way more interested in cultivating connected, informed and community-oriented individuals.”

This emphasis on personal development is especially important for young participants in programs like Tucson Clean and Beautiful’s pre-employment program, he adds. Unlike older generations, they are likely to change jobs and even careers more frequently, and as they do he hopes the core takeaways from the program will guide them.

What’s more, not all graduates end up in the tree-care industry — at least not right away. But they emerge with transferable life skills, as well as knowledge about and deep appreciation for trees.

“The metrics we’re using to define success within these fields, and within these communities, don’t really capture even more than a fraction of the story,” Breault says.

But even before the programs offer any help with life skills, they first need to ensure their trainees’ basic needs are met and logistical employment barriers are removed. This assistance can include anything from rent support and cold-weather gear to childcare, transportation and GED support.

The goal is simple, though, according to Tia Washington, American Forests’ senior manager of Career Pathways who focuses on case management: “How can we support people to be their best selves?”

These wraparound services, which are tailored to individuals’ unique needs, address immediate challenges and barriers that may otherwise deter or prevent people from taking advantage of a training opportunity. It works to level the playing field and helps make people feel welcome and safe.

Garden Time Executive Director Lacouture also highlights the importance of follow-up with training participants and shares that Garden Time offers an incentivized monthly wellness support group. “We just try to stay with people and help them. It’s one thing to get a job — it’s a lot harder to keep a job.”

Washington notes that while the training initiatives themselves are focused on employment and careers, the actual work is very people-centered. Krishnamurthy agrees, concluding that “the focus on people is as important as our focus on the trees in this case.”

CHANGING COMMUNITIES, CHANGING LIVES

Cameron believes that programs like Garden Time would make a significant impact all over the country. “I feel like they really need more programs out there like this, for people being formerly incarcerated and want to make a change in their life, but don’t know the right steps,” he says. Reames, who was also previously incarcerated — for 17 years — declares without hesitation that the program altered the course of his life.

“I’ve been shot in the face, I’ve been stabbed. I have been through it,” he says. “That class, it really just saved my life.” He says that programs like Tree CPR embody true rehabilitation — it was the authentic help he’d been needing and searching for. “That class changed me mentally, spiritually.”

After graduating in November 2023, Reames had a job in urban agriculture lined up, but ended up reincarcerated. Kayla Stuart, who leads the Tree CPR program, keeps him engaged with reading materials on urban forestry, tree planting, tree canopies, urban soils, tree biology, urban wood manufacturing and related topics.

“Kayla’s still pushing for me,” says Reames, who is grateful for Stuart’s support and remains determined to pick up where he left off once he is released.

“This opportunity with American Forests and the Tree CPR program that we built with Kayla is the sort of thing that young Memphians desperately need,” says Mike Larrivee, director of regenerative initiatives at The Works. “It’s simply the exposure to opportunities that they, by and large, had no idea existed. And Kayla is a tree person, but she also gets people at an incredibly deep level.”

The program was, in many ways, life-changing for Stuart, too. She says that the impact that the individuals in that first cohort had on her personal life was more immense than she could have ever imagined. They saw and respected and trusted her — almost immediately. After only knowing her for a short time, they truly valued her, which was something she hadn’t experienced in a job before.

“They just believed in what we all were there to do: to grow and learn and be better stewards of our environment,” she reflects. “And sharing that with a group of individuals that look like me was so powerful and so moving.”

In its call for applications for the Fall 2023 job training cohort, The Works received 600 responses in 24 hours for the Tree CPR program.

“The need here is just incomprehensibly great,” Larrivee says. “The more of this we can do, the more impact we can have, the more jobs we can create, the more equitable we can make things for all Memphians.”

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

These days, when Acker thinks about urban forestry, she envisions a better future for her two young children. Similarly, Reames takes pride in sharing his new passion for trees with his daughter. His favorite species is the sycamore.

Acker and Reames, and their fellow graduates of Tree CPR and other programs, entered these programs seeking a different path in life and financial security. They gained skills and resources, secured certifications and solidified connections.

But the impact of their participation in these programs, and of their entry into the urban forestry field, is bigger than these individuals. They are fostering community. They are inspiring the next generation. They are paving the way for Tree Equity in their cities.

“They feel like their grandkids are going to see these trees — and they can be proud about that,” Lacouture says of Garden Time’s Canopy Crew that travels around Providence to ensure its young trees thrive.

American Forests is working to replicate these successes in cities across the country with a new strategy to attract young people to urban forestry careers; build the knowledge, skills and expertise of local partners; and connect trainees to employers and available jobs. Sustaining people’s livelihoods is crucial to sustaining tree canopy not just now, but for generations to come.

Cameron agrees: “I love being a part of something that’s going to be around long after I’m gone.”

Nicole Greenfield is a New York-based freelance writer whose work focuses on the intersection of climate, environment and health.