Urban Forest Equity Collective
The LA Urban Forest Equity Collective is a consortium of forestry experts, LA City staff, community-based organizations, and researchers working to create strategies that advance urban forest equity in LA’s hardest-hit neighborhoods.
Nearly 20% of Los Angeles’s urban forest is concentrated where only 1% of the city’s population lives, endangering lower-income communities and people of color with hotter summers and poor environmental quality. But LA’s extreme diversity in socio-economics and climate, coupled with its extensive roadway infrastructure, make it a challenging place to grow a protective urban forest that benefits the communities who need it most.
Following a three-year initiative funded by Accelerate Resilience L.A. and the USDA Forest Service via the LA Center for Urban Natural Resources Sustainability, the Collective has released a suite of publications that redefine the problem of urban forest equity and present workable solutions for community members, local groups, and city leaders.
Photo Credit: North East Trees
After partnering with communities and the City of Los Angeles to guide priorities and identify pathways from research to implementation, the Collective presents a framework intended to be replicable regionally and beyond Los Angeles. It provides practical tools to prioritize and plan for the increased presence of trees and shade in urban areas, and offers decision-making support, community engagement strategies, and evocative renderings showing implementation pathways for two nature based solutions in LA neighborhoods.
Phase II (2022 - 2024)
LA Urban Forest Equity Community Action Toolkit
Phase I (2020 - 2021)
Resources, Tools, and Appendices
Project Partners
This work was funded through City Plants by Accelerate Resilience Los Angeles (ARLA), a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and the USDA Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program via the LA Center for Urban Natural Resources Sustainability.
Urban Forest Management Plan
First Steps Toward an Urban Forest Management Plan for Los Angeles: The Assessment Phase
Thanks to a grant from CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service, City Plants and partners are working with tree advocates and professionals from City Departments, non-profit organizations, CFAC, and the Neighborhood Council Sustainability Committee to conduct the assessment phase of an Urban Forestry Management Plan for the City of Los Angeles. Every UFMP requires a city to do a thorough audit of the current state of policies and programs as they relate to trees. City Plants and partners have retained the services of Dudek, an environmental consultant company, to work with a formal Working Group to conduct the audit. City Plants collaborated with a formal Working Group to aid Dudek in their analysis. The final report of this assessment will be finished in December of 2018, and it will hopefully help shape the future of urban forestry management in the City of Los Angeles.
