Tree Ambassador Program
The Tree Ambassador – Promotor Forestal Program is a grassroots, bilingual community organizing program dedicated to amplifying community voices and planting trees in historically disinvested communities in Los Angeles.
This program provides on-the-ground, community-centered support to residents in low-canopy and urban heat vulnerable regions of the city by paying residents directly to organize for a greener and more equitable future.
The Tree Ambassador Program is rooted in a simple idea: Any attempt to close the urban forest equity gap in LA must center the voices of people most impacted by systemic inequity, and community-led urban forestry must celebrate — and directly compensate — local-level, community-centered knowledge.
Your city. Your voice. Your urban forest.
Tu voz. Tu ciudad. Tu bosque urbano.
Tree Ambassadors participate in a paid training program and receive support from urban forestry and climate resilience experts to plant and care for more trees in their own communities. 21 Tree Ambassadors have been trained since the pilot program in 2021.
Want to follow along with the journey and implement the Tree Ambassador program in your own community?
Explore the Tree Ambassador Community Action Toolkit and curriculum here:
Chapter 1: Introduction to Urban Forestry & the Tree Ambassador Model
Chapter 2: Community Organizing for a Green & Equitable Future
Chapter 3: Right Tree, Right Place, Right Reason
Chapter 4: Tree Planting & Young Tree Care Basics
Chapter 5: Trees, Urban Heat, and Climate Change
Chapter 6: Overcoming Barriers to Urban Greening
Chapter 7: Native Los Angeles
Chapter 8: Mature Tree Health & Care
Chapter 9: Careers in Urban Greening
City Plants collaborated with local, state, and federal partners to pilot the Tree Ambassador Program in 2021. The Pilot Tree Ambassador Program was funded by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, CalFire, and the U.S. Forest Service, through City Plants, the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, and Koreatown Youth and Community Center.
We have had two iterations of the program since 2021. Our third iteration of the Tree Ambassador Program will start in January 2025 in collaboration with North East Trees as part of their Building Careers and Canopies Program. The program is generously funded by the governor and legislature from the 2021/2022 State General Fund and administered by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Urban and Community Forestry Program.
