Trees are lifesaving infrastructure for resilient communities
The trees that line our city streets provide much more than meets the eye. Beyond just looking good, trees provide essential benefits for people and are key to creating resilient communities. They are job creators and lifesaving infrastructure: filtering our air, cooling cities, lowering utility bills and boosting physical and mental health.
Unfortunately, those benefits are not equally shared. Lower-income communities have 26% less tree cover and are almost 6 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than wealthier areas. Communities of color — regardless of income — fare even worse, with 38% less tree cover and temperatures up to 13 degrees hotter than predominantly white communities.
How American Forests became a leader in environmental justice
Since 1990, American Forests has planted 65 million trees. And once mature, those trees will help curb carbon emissions from the annual energy use of 3.1 million homes, creating healthier, more livable communities. But what’s more, American Forests is holistically helping communities by leading a global Tree Equity movement — focusing on efforts to ensure that all people, in every neighborhood, have equal access to the benefits of trees. Through these movement building efforts and our environmental justice leadership, we are helping communities by highlighting the need and advocating for Tree Equity through providing the tools, resources and collective action to ensure that trees are planted in the neighborhoods that need them most, regardless of race and income.
For 150 years, American Forests stood boldly at the forefront of the conservation movement — working collaboratively and innovatively to ensure healthy, resilient communities for all people.
Phoenix rising
Photo Credit: American Forests / Joel Clark
Masavi Perea knows the need for trees in communities all too well. Working construction in Phoenix — the hottest city in America — through the 1990s and 2000s, he recalls heat making his body numb and watching co-workers, especially roofers, fall sick. Frustrated by employers’ neglect, he found his calling in the Justice for Roofers Campaign, advocating for outdoor workers’ rights.
In many ways, he was ahead of his time. Heat-related deaths in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, have risen 900% since 2014. Last year was its hottest summer on record, with 113 days topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Today, as coalitions and trainings director for the NGO Chispa AZ, Perea champions more trees and green spaces in Black and Latinx neighborhoods, targeting places with little investment in trees or parks. He organizes neighborhood groups to map local heat spots and partners with community health workers to raise awareness of the dangers of extreme heat.
To look at Perea and Phoenix today is to see the future of Tree Equity. Maricopa County has pledged to fully achieve Tree Equity by 2030, creating “Cool Corridors” for walking and shaded city parks. Its “Shade Phoenix Master Plan” allocates more than $60 million for trees, equitable playgrounds, shaded bus stops and safe outdoor spaces to support resilient communities.
To guide the effort, the county partnered with American Forests and UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation, developing advanced shade data through the Tree Equity Score Analyzer.
Photo Credit: Michael Jennings / American Forests
“To me, environmental justice is a responsibility, and I do it from the bottom of my heart because I want to change the community, I want to leave it better,” Perea says. “But also, I want people to stop dying, and people to continue enjoying something as simple as going to the park, just in the evening outside of their house, having conversation as we used to do when we were kids.”
Divine Providence
Providence, Rhode Island may be miles and miles away from Phoenix, but both cities face similar challenges with inequitable tree distribution. And while temperatures here don’t hit the extremes that some regions are facing, cities like Providence are less prepared for the continually rising temperatures brought by climate change, making tree canopy just as important. The Providence Neighborhood Planting Program (PNPP) is working to expand tree canopy across the city — and in neighborhoods that need it most — by training community tree stewards and providing free street trees to residents.
Photo Credit: Hannah Gregory / American Forests
Since 1988, PNPP has planted more than 16,000 street trees, many in South Providence, a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood with high poverty rates, few trees and the city’s harshest summer temperatures. In 2022, they partnered with the Providence Housing Authority to target plantings where they would create the most community benefits using the Rhode Island Tree Equity Score Analyzer, developed with American Forests.
“We see the Tree Equity Score Analyzer as key to socializing our plan with stakeholders and funders,” says PNPP Executive Director Cassie Tharinger.
The analyzer is a street-level deep dive that integrates data on canopy, income, employment, race, health and surface temperature to guide tree planting and protection. Using this tool, PNPP collaborated with an after-school ecology club at 360 High School — one of South Providence’s lowest-scoring areas — to draft a planting plan. Students compared Tree Equity Score maps with on-the-ground observations before knocking on doors to discuss Tree Equity with residents.
“We got to know the youth,” says Tharinger. “They then talked to their families and communities, which helped build community buy-in and generate momentum.”
The project united the community, attracted new funders and led to a projected 3 acres of new canopy. Caring for the trees required a broad network of volunteers, community groups, contractors and job training programs. A year later, PNPP partnered with frontline residents, city leaders and other organizations to develop the comprehensive strategic vision known as the PVD Tree Plan.
As a result, 1,500 streets now have new trees representing more than 200 species. Over 360 residents have been trained as Community Tree Keepers, and more than 86 Neighborhood Tree Leaders have been recruited.
For 150 years, American Forests has nurtured the nation’s trees. But, we’ve also used trees as a way to nurture resilient communities. We want to ensure that all people have access to the benefits of trees, now and for our future.