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Who We Are
Born from the vision of a teenager more than 50 years ago, TreePeople inspires people to come together to grow a more climate-resilient Southern California. We have planted and cared for millions of trees, restored thousands of acres of fire-scarred wildlands, and helped to educate hundreds of thousands of environmentalists.
When California experiences climate emergencies, TreePeople researches and implements sustainable solutions to protect and restore natural resources. When fires burn, TreePeople restores native ecosystems to grow more resilient wilderness areas and communities. When communities face extreme heat, TreePeople plants and distributes shade trees. When schools are covered in asphalt, TreePeople greens schoolyards. When students worry about the future, TreePeople provides tools and education to train our next generation of environmental leaders. As the world faces increasing threats from climate change, TreePeople helps unite communities around actionable solutions.
What We Do

Community Forestry
Through our urban planting and tree care events and tree distributions, we work with communities to increase tree canopy and green space where it’s most needed, building resilience in the face of climate change.

Restoration & Conservation
TreePeople trains and mobilizes thousands each year to increase the climate and fire resilience of Southern California’s wildlands. By cultivating native plants in our nursery, removing invasive species, prioritizing biodiversity, and providing long-term site management, our comprehensive restoration model helps facilitate long-term recovery for degraded sites and burn scars, assuring they are healthier and more fire-resilient for future generations.

School Greening
We create green learning environments that enhance academic achievement, support health and well-being, and create safe places to play in nature. Through partnerships with school communities and districts, we advocate for, implement, and manage school greening projects to protect students from extreme heat, air pollution, and polluted water.

Education & Outdoor Equity
Every year, TreePeople engages tens of thousands of students in parks and on campuses to teach environmental literacy and provide hands-on, actionable solutions to our climate crisis. We also offer tools to teachers so they can continue to deepen students’ understanding of our local ecosystems.

TreePeople Land Trust
We steward more than 3,000 acres of land in the Santa Monica Mountains–protecting these spaces for the benefit of future generations. Programs include public recreation, environmental education, scientific research, and more.

Policy & Advocacy
TreePeople works from the policy level to the grassroots level to facilitate science-based policies, incentives, and applicable demonstration programs to transform Southern California utilizing nature-based solutions.

Research
TreePeople’s Research Department has been at the forefront of urban environmental science for over a decade, producing scientific reports that inform and inspire action on issues like water security, soil, drought resilience, and urban heat.

Water
TreePeople supports communities in rethinking the way we manage water by modeling best watershed management practices and engaging people through education and participation in community retrofit projects. This demonstrates how our schools, homes, streets, and alleys can be transformed to improve water quality, increase water supply, and provide community benefits. We show how simple changes can protect our water, reduce pollution, and create greener spaces.
Get Involved

Events at the Park
TreePeople events are where arts and environmental education converge in Southern California – creating a new space to explore the connections between creativity and ecology.

Learn
TreePeople has nearly 50 years worth of resources and educational materials for you to learn from and take action with. Transform your community with our handy videos, project kits, and downloadable resources.

Shop
For nearly 50 years, TreePeople has planted over 3 million trees with 3 million volunteers across Southern California. Purchasing these products helps us plant and care for the next 3 million!

Tree Dedication Cards
Looking for a way to honor, celebrate, or memorialize a loved one? Purchase physical and virtual cards to send today! Each card supports TreePeople’s mission planting trees and restoring ecosystems, educating the next generation of environmentalists, and researching for our future.

Wildfire Resilience Fund
Wildfires are a natural part of California’s landscape, but their increasing intensity threatens our forests, communities, and green spaces. At TreePeople, we are dedicated to fire resilience, working to restore fire-scarred lands, prevent future devastation, and protect the biodiversity of Southern California. Yet, we can’t do it alone—we need your help.
Donate today to TreePeople’s Wildfire Resilience Fund and be a part of the solution.

Monthly Giving
Canopy funds will directly benefit our initiatives in urban and school greening for underserved communities, support our wildfire restoration initiatives, and allow us to provide environmental education to thousands of students each year.
Blog

How to Create a More Tree-Friendly City
Life in the big city is REALLY tough for trees. While trees in the wild often live 100 years or more, the average lifespan of an urban tree is just 19 to 28 years, according to the USDA. What accounts for this discrepancy? Well, many of our urban environments aren’t built for trees—they’re built for…

How to Help Care for Trees in Your Neighborhood
Here at TreePeople, we do a LOT of planting—in 2024 alone, we put more than 11,000 new trees in the ground! Expanding our urban canopy is critical to building climate resilience. But something that’s just as important is continuing to care for the canopy we have—especially the older, mature trees that make our neighborhoods shady,…

Sunflowers won’t save LA’s soil. Here’s what will.
As toxic ash carpeted many peoples’ yards during the recent LA wildfires, it highlighted an ongoing concern—the way our health is intricately connected with soil health. Contaminated soil is an important human health concern. People can be exposed when we accidentally eat or breathe in soil particles, and young children—who are especially vulnerable—can be exposed…

Soil contamination 101: understanding—and improving—our urban soil
The recent wildfires in Los Angeles sparked a lot of concern about soil contamination among the general public. They also—perhaps more importantly—exposed a long-standing problem: the serious lack of soil support resources available to most people, including urban soil education, soil testing, and soil remediation options. Despite the fact that people knowingly or unknowingly interact…