Tree Ambassador Program
The Tree Ambassador – Promotor Forestal Program is a grassroots, bilingual community organizing pilot 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.
Check out the selected neighborhoods for the 2021 – 2022 Tree Ambassador Pilot Cohort.
Tree Ambassadors participate in a 10-month paid training program and receive support from urban forestry and climate resilience experts to plant and care for more trees in their own communities. 14 Tree Ambassadors have been onboarded for this pilot cohort.
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 is collaborating with local, state, and federal partners to pilot the Tree Ambassador Program through April 2022. The Tree Ambassador Program is 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.
