Inspiration Case 5: Urban Community Forestry

INSPIRATION CASE 5: URBAN COMMUNITY FORESTRY

General Information Urban community forestry projects like the Tree People Initiative from Los Angeles, US, is all about inspiring, engaging and supporting people and communities to take responsibility for their urban environment. Planting trees and utilising modern technology in the urban environment is just one part of the initiative to make cities a greener and more liveable place. More importantly, core of these projects is to educate schoolchildren and adults about environmental issues, working with local communities on benefits of natural environment and government agencies on critical ecological issues.

Inspiration & Parametres for change a) binded, healthier and safer communities

Tree plantings provide an opportunity for community involvement and empowerment that improves the quality of life in neighbourhoods. All cultures, ages, and genders have an important role to play at a tree planting or tree care event. Furthermore, studies have shown that patients with views of trees out their windows heal faster and with less complications. Children with ADHD show fewer symptoms when they have access to nature. Exposure to trees and nature aids concentration by reducing mental fatigue. It can also be shown that neighbourhoods and homes that are barren have a greater incidence of violence in and out of the home than their greener counterparts. Trees and landscaping help to reduce the level of fear.

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b) environmental benefits

Larger-scale greening projects, incorporating tree plantings and tree care, can clean cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s air, clean and replenish its water supplies, reduce energy consumption, mitigate the effects of global warming or prevent an urban heat island effect. As street plantings often involve removing concrete to place young, healthy trees in the ground, these mulched trees help rainwater soak into the soil underneath the sidewalks, preventing the water from becoming runoff.

INSPIRATION CASE 5: URBAN COMMUNITY FORESTRY Our inspiring example: TREE PEOPLE, Los Angeles, U.S.

TreePeople is an environmental nonprofit operating in Los Angeles, California, that works with trees, people and technology to grow a sustainable future for their city. Since their beginning in the 1970’s TreePeople focused on educating and inspiring people to plant and care for trees to help nature heal cities.

How does TreePeople work in detail? In places one can’t plant trees, for example where buildings and parking lots cover the land, what else can one do to green a city? TreePeople found the answer: communities can protect their natural resources and cool their cities by using technology to re-create the healthy functions of a forest in urban settings, for example permeable pavings, French drains, swales, rain barrels, cisterns and other relatively simple “forest-mimicking” innovations. Since their beginning, TreePeople has trained and supported communities to plant and care for trees, educated schoolchildren and adults about environmental issues, demonstrated sustainable solutions to urban ecosystem problems and worked with government agencies on critical water issues. The highlights can doubtlessly be found in operating a beautiful public park as well as the opening of the TreePeople Center for Community Forestry.

What does it mean for Los Angeles’ communities? TreePeople brings a huge benefit to Los Angeles as the organisation fights against 90 percent of the school grounds in L.A. being covered by asphalt, against the worst air quality of any major city in the United States that poses a threat to the health of all residents and against 85 percent of the water it uses that has to be imported at a huge cost to consumers and the ecosystems that supply it. With help from volunteers, partners and communities, the project lessens the impact of these problems by creating a functioning community forest in every neighborhood.

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