Take a moment to reflect.
What have been the defining moments in your life? What challenges have you faced? What opportunities to thrive have you been given? Do trees figure into any of your answers? Possibly not.
Several years ago, trees had not played a role in Kris Cameron’s life story either. But they have since become a central, defining part of it.
Photo Credit: Hannah Gregory / American Forests
In April 2023, Cameron felt like a lost cause. He had moved from Tampa, Fla. to Providence, R.I. a few years earlier, eager for a fresh start after an adolescence in the streets followed by some time spent in prison.
“I wanted to change my life, but I was still trapped in the game because of my surroundings,” he reflects. When Cameron got accepted to an eight-week, paid career training program in urban forestry, he thought his life might finally begin to turn around. And it did — to an extent he never could have imagined — all because of trees.
Trees act as the lungs of the Earth — they inhale what we exhale, transforming carbon dioxide into the very oxygen we need to survive. But, for some individuals, trees don’t just help them survive, they help them thrive by breathing new opportunity into their lives.
This is exactly what happened for Cameron. He recently became foreman of his own tree-planting crew at the community organization Groundwork Rhode Island. This accomplishment came only two years after completing the transformative Green Reentry Job Training program through Providence’s Garden Time, an American Forests partner and nonprofit dedicated to preparing incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals for jobs in the green industry.
“I’m a thriving, productive member of society now,” he says with pride. “I’m an inspiration to myself.”
Trees can create opportunities to thrive for people and communities
In cities across the United States, many communities can suffer from a lack of tree cover. This is particularly the case in historically disinvested neighborhoods, which tend to have a majority low-income residents or residents of color. As climate change accelerates and issues like extreme heat grow more severe, the need for more trees in these areas is increasingly dire.
Getting those trees planted, and properly caring for them after they are in the ground, requires a trained workforce with specific skills and qualifications. But there is a shortage of workers who can take on these roles. In fact, we need to fill roughly 173,000 new tree-care jobs by 2028 to successfully expand and maintain tree cover in cities across the country — a vast opportunity.
Programs like Garden Time’s Green Reentry are helping to fill that gap — and provide new economic opportunities for the individuals who are preparing to enter the urban forestry workforce. “I felt like I was getting paid to learn,” Cameron says.
Importantly, these programs, with support from American Forests and its Career Pathways Initiative, are committed to ensuring those who have been underrepresented in the urban forestry workforce, a profession traditionally dominated by older, white men, have access to these opportunities. These jobs also tend to have higher entry-level wages than those at other jobs. Tree care also provides a unique opportunity for workers to become entrepreneurs: About 25% of individuals who enter the profession will eventually become self-employed.
To date, American Forests’ tree planting projects have created or maintained approximately 1,400 jobs. Efforts that wouldn’t be entirely possible without the collaboration of partners, like Garden Time or the support of corporate partners like Nespresso.
American Forests understands that local, place-based participation and investment in urban forestry initiatives are critical. Will Betters was living at his mother’s house around the corner from Garden Time when he began volunteering on site and picking up bits of information taught in the program’s classes. After he lost his job at a local supermarket, he went straight to Garden Time, and its Co-Founder and Executive Director Kate Lacouture, hoping for some help with job applications for tree companies. She did one better and instead asked him to join the organization’s Canopy Crew, a group that travels around Providence making sure its young trees are thriving.
“I was on the bottom of the totem pole,” he says. “But in two or three months, they handed me a clipboard one day and said we need you to do this.” Today, Betters co-leads the Canopy Crew. And with his new profession in tree care, he says he’s been able to “branch out” and move into his own place.
More than just a job, it’s a chance at lasting impact
For Betters, Cameron and many others in urban forestry, the benefits go beyond economic opportunity. Working with trees has given their lives purpose, helping them thrive within their communities.
“We just do good work in the community, and I feel like I’m a part of something that’s bigger than myself,” Cameron reflects.
Photo Credit: Hannah Gregory / American Forests
Beyond the immediate impact, the trees they plant will provide lasting benefits for decades. An impact that means the world to Cameron: “I love caring for trees. I love seeing the finished product. I love being a part of something that’s going to be around long after I’m gone.”
American Forests is dedicated to creating these opportunities to thrive because everyone deserves the chance — and trees can help make that happen. This Earth Month, if you believe every breath counts, then you believe every tree matters. And, every individual who cares for those trees matters, too. Don’t hold your breath, join us in protecting the lungs of the Earth and providing those who need it the most the opportunity to thrive.
